Spirit Rover touched down in Mars in January 2004, just before its (slightly more famous) twin sister, Opportunity.
Both robots turned out to be troopers. Spirit lasted 20 times longer than NASA expected, and Curiosity is still trundling around Mars after 12 years.
This has made them the two of the most famous robots to exist. Just one reason why this fantastic kit project looks like a great introduction to robotics.
Spirit Rover - Plum Geek Starter Kit
Spirit Rover is a Kickstarter kit from Plum Geek Robotics (the same people who built the popular Wink robot).
It combines both a Raspberry Pi with an Arduino (and a Microchip PIC processor to control the servos). This would make it a good choice for a maker looking to branch out from Raspberry Pi into Arduino projects (or vice versa).
The robot contains a pan and tilt head, gripper and neopixel lights. So it's lot more mobile than other robot kits, and a lot more bling than the real-life version.
Here's some of its features:
