The mission went to the Lambahraun lava field at the foot of the Langjokull glacier. The landscape was considered a good stand in for the surface of Mars, which NASA intends to visit next year. Adam Deslauriers of Canada’s Mission Control Space Services said: “It’s a very good analogue for Mars exploration and learning how to drive Mars rovers.
“This rover we have is basically indestructible.
“The rovers that we have on Mars and the Moon would be a lot more sensitive to the environment and conditions of Iceland.”
He explained: “A Moon rover is completely unprepared for rain.”
The Japan News reports the Mars Rover can travel at 20cm/s and weighs 570kg (1257lbs).
The speed ensures data and images are collected properly.
Ryan Ewing of the Texas A&M University said: “The mineralogy in Iceland is very similar to what we would find on Mars.
“In addition to that, we don’t have much vegetation, it’s cold and we have some of the environments like sand dunes and rivers and glaciers that Mars has evidence of in the past.”
Mission Control wants to revisit Iceland before the launch of the mission next year.
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Temperatures on Mars range from -143C (-226F) to 35C (95F), with an average of -63C (-82F).
A year on Mars is 687 Earth days.
SpaceX founder Elon Musk has announced plans to be able to send space tourists to the plan but no human has yet set foot on the planet.
Evidence of Mars’ existence has been found dating back 4,000 years.
Several satellites from Earth are orbiting Mars.
The next planet along from the Sun is Jupiter.
Jupiter’s mass is two and half times the combined mass of all the planets in the Solar System.
Jupiter has 79 known moons.
It is named after the Roman God of the Sky, with the Greek equivalent being Zeus.
There are eight planets in the Solar System after Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006.