Roving Mars is a 2006 IMAX documentary film about the development, launch, and operation of the Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity. The film uses few actual photographs from Mars, opting to use computer generated animation based on the photographs and data from the rovers and other Mars probes. The film has been released on Blu-ray disc by distributor Disney.

Roving Mars has made over US$10 million as of January 25, 2009.

Roving Mars is also the title of a non-fiction book by MER principal investigator Steve Squyres about the rover mission.

Music

The musical score for Roving Mars was composed by Philip Glass. A soundtrack album was released by Lakeshore Records on June 27, 2006. The album also features the song Glósóli by Sigur Rós.

Reception

Roving Mars received positive reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes reports a 70% rating based on 37 reviews, with an average rating of 6.8/10. Its consensus states that Roving Mars is a decent thrill ride even when it starts feeling like a commercial plug for NASA s failing space program.

Entertainment Weekly gave the film a B−, stating that Only a series of pics featuring a set of strange little nodes that look like blueberries planted in a pile of red rocks carry any kind of translatable otherworldly kick. The New York Post called it a splendidly photographed 2D IMAX film. The Boston Globe said Despite audiences knowing the happy ending from the get-go, Butler manages to inject considerable drama.

Conversely, the Los Angeles Times claimed, Not having a way to capture images of the machines at work means that too much of Butler s film… is disappointingly made up of computer simulations. , while the San Francisco Chronicle claimed that There aren t enough pyrotechnics in the paltry 40-minute run time to justify the ticket price.

Year	2006
ReleaseDate	2006-01-27
RuntimeMins	40
RuntimeStr	40min
Plot	Through the eyes of two state-of-the-art rovers, and with NASA scientists at your side, you’ll see Mars in a way no one ever has before-direct from the surface of the amazing red planet.
Awards	Awards, 1 win & 1 nomination
Directors	George Butler
Writers	George Butler, Robert Andrus
Stars	Paul Newman, Steve Squyres, Rob Manning
Produced by	Caroline Alexander,George Butler,Tara Grace,Frank Marshall,Scott Swofford
Music by	Philip Glass
Cinematography by	T.C. Christensen
Film Editing by	Nancy Baker
Production Management	Rick Gordon,Scott Swofford
Art Department	Christopher Cole,Stefan Kocev
Sound Department	John P. Fasal,Steven C. Laneri,Michael L. McDonough,Roger Phenix,Ryan Purcell,Gary A. Rizzo,Karl Rosengren,Onofre Ortega
Visual Effects by	Johnathan R. Banta,Aja Bogdanoff,David Booth,Chris Brown,Tim Enstice,Colin Feist,Jason Jue,Dan Maas,Alan G. Markowitz,Jeremy Nicolaides,John Niehuss,Tom Piedmont,Benjamin Schweighart,Jun Watanabe,Justin Wick
Camera and Electrical Department	Robert Adams,Bryan Ashford,Denise Bailie,Ron Batzdorff,Brandon Christensen,Zep Christensen,Lynn Davis,Rhett E. Fernsten,Steve Foss,Cary Fukinaga,Scott Hoffman,Tim Lovasen,Al Magallon,Tyler Meiners,Chris Murray,James Neihouse,Elmer Oukrop,Dennis L. Peterson,Jake Roquemore,Jed Seus,Bernard Sissel,Sandi Sissel,Reed Smoot,Matt Stelling,Jack Tankard,Todd Taylor,Andy Turek,Henry Valus,Bryan Watson,Fred Weigle,Kat Westergaard,Matthew Williams,John Beck Hofmann,Scott Hulme
Animation Department	Eric DeJong
Editorial Department	Tina Ballou,Chi Yoon Chung
Location Management	Larry Matson,Laura Bemis Rollison
Music Department	John Carbonara,Susan Jacobs,Scott Johnson,Daniel Nielsen,Suzana Peric,Michael Riesman,Christian Rutledge
Transportation Department	Brett Miller
Additional Crew	John Dowling,Edwin Escalante,Cliff Fleming,Brian Kubricky,Jeff T. Miller,Terri Pappas,Mary T. Radford,Laura Bemis Rollison
Thanks	Daniel Holton-Roth
Genres	Documentary, Short
Companies	Walt Disney Pictures, Lockheed Martin, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
Countries	USA
Languages	English
ContentRating	G
ImDbRating	7.2
ImDbRatingVotes	1067
MetacriticRating	58
Keywords	engineering challenge,imax,galaxy,water,rock