There is a group of a dozen elite drivers who control NASA’s pioneering rovers on Mars. They are tasked with not only navigating a rover halfway across the solar system, but also operating its unwieldy seven-foot robotic arm to scoop up samples and perform experiments to see if the red planet has water – and life.

A number of rovers have made it to Mars, but not all have survived – or thrived. For instance, the two Prop-M rovers launched by the Soviet Union in 1971 were lost in failed deployments, as was the British Beagle 2 after deployment in 2003. NASA has sent four rovers, starting with the small Sojourner from the 1996 Mars Pathfinder mission. This was operational for three months and was followed by the larger Spirit (MER-A) from the Mars Exploration Rover mission, which was operational for six years until its wheels got stuck in sand in 2010 and communications were subsequently lost. A second rover, Opportunity (MER-B), was launched as part of this mission in 2003. It landed in 2004 and was still operational by the time a major global dust storm hit in June this year – its original operational life was just three months. NASA is still waiting to see if the rover will respond now that the dust storm – one of the most intense recorded on the planet – has ended.