Mars Rover prototype at the Museum of the Atacama Desert

A prototype of a Mars Rover was donated by NASA to the Museum of the Atacama Desert (MDA), in Antofagasta (Chile’s Region II). Some of the tests for the Mars Rovers missions Spirit and Opportunity, which landed on the Red Planet in 2004, were carried out in the desert of the II Region of Chile. The MDA, officially inaugurated on 25 May 2010, includes five main permanent exhibitions on geology, history, mining and astronomy. The astronomy exhibition, “A Window to the Universe”, was designed and donated by ESO as a contribution to the Region of Antofagasta.