The original lineup of the Mars Rovers, featuring singer Shawn Patterson and guitarist Larry Roberts, first got together at a community clubhouse in Oregon City in January, 2017, and aimed to capture the thrill of classic rock music but avoid the overplayed standards of the "bar band" repertoire. They played their first show eight months later, at a Kaiser Sunnyside Hospital staff party in Ally Buchanan's back yard on September 16th. The three sets that night included the Allman Brothers Band's Whipping Post, Rival Sons' Open My Eyes, Blue Oyster Cult's Joan Crawford, and In The Light, the first of the band's long and ambitious Led Zeppelin covers - a category that would grow to include No Quarter and Kashmir.

In Dec. 2017 and Jan. 2018, original Mars Rovers drummer Skip Landis produced and engineered a six-song demo recording. From then through March of 2020 the band played 12 more shows. The full demo is available on this web site, along with set lists and some video and audio from each show.

At the Eastside Bar and Grill in April 2018, the band had to end the night a bit early when Skip did not feel well. He turned out to be experiencing early symptoms of Parkinson's disease. Chris Moran replaced him at the drums, and Skip stayed around as a live sound engineer and steady friend of the band.

When Covid-19 arrived in March of 2020, three members of the band were working at Kaiser hospitals. The band managed to schedule a few more scattered shows in 2020 and 2021, ending with the a final performance on Halloween 2021 at the Garages sattelite pub in Beaverton. This also happened to be the final weekend of live music at that venue. The building has since been demolished for redevelopment, and At The Garages was reborn at a bigger location in Lake Oswego.

Shawn left Portland and moved to Arkansas in 2022. Founding bassist Richard Kiely and keyboard player J.D. Duncan plan to bring the Mars Rovers back with a new lineup in 2023.