Question: What's the whole point of sending Rovers to Mars? What are they trying to test?

Stuart Atkinson answered on 10 Mar 2016:

As a species, humans have always been curious about the world, and finding out about the other planets is no exception. You may think it’s a bit pointless exploring the other planets as it costs so much money to create the rockets and robots to go there. But the technology invented to do this always has other applications that can help us on Earth.

Also, we do not know enough about the Earth and looking at other planets helps us to understand Earth better. For example, we are still not good at predicting volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. Obviously when these occur they affect thousands of people. The type of vulcanism we have on Earth is based on molten rock, or magma. But other planets have other types of vulcanism, involving water or methane instead of magma. If we have more examples of what is possible across the planets it means we are better able to understand our own planet.

Exploring Mars is also essential if we are ever to set foot there as we will need to know where the best places to land and build are, and also where we can extract useful materials.