Configuration
NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers will be intelligent enough to drive long
distances without any help from Earth and will know how to pick their
way through a martian landscape full of obstacles. Should something come
up that one of the rovers cannot handle alone, it will stop in its tracks
and "phone home." Conducting this kind of research is a race
against time. Martian dust will slowly build up on the rovers' solar arrays.
It will eventually block the energy needed to recharge the batteries that
keep the rovers alive. |
Flight Plan
The shortest distance between two planets is not a straight line. At least that's the case in the business of spaceflight. The shortest distance is a curved line that takes into account a number of factors, including the orbits of the two planets and the position of each planet within its orbit. The MER mission took advantage of a rare close alignment of Earth and Mars in 2003. In June 2003, the first Mars Exploration Rover, named Spirit, launched on a Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida. It should enter the Martian atmosphere in early January 2004. An identical twin rover, named Opportunity, was launched in July 2003 and should arrive a few weeks after Spirit. |
Mars Facts
Mars is very cold, very dusty, and has a thin atmosphere that is saturated
with carbon dioxide gas. Sometimes it gets so cold that the carbon dioxide
condenses onto the martian surface. So why do we want to go there? Because
Mars wasn't always this way. Thirty years of research in the form of spacecraft
flybys, orbiters, and landers has revealed that Mars was once Earthlike.
The fingerprint of a water planet lies in its landforms. Large channels
and small gullies attest to a history of flowing water. There is the possibility
that life may have existed there and might even exist there today. |
