SPACEFLIGHT
Get Your Ass to Mars!



NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers
Launch Date: June 10, 25(Rover A and B)
Landing Date: January 2004

A SUCCESSFUL LAUNCH FOR SPIRIT!

Following up on the success of the Pathfinder Mission, NASA is sending two larger Athena rovers to different sites on Mars to search for evidence of water. Unlike the Pathfinder's Sojourner rover, which had to stay near it's lander, these robots will be free roaming. The rover has a mass of nearly 180 kilograms (about 380 pounds) and has a range of up to 100 meters (about 100 yards) per martian day.









Mission
Primary among the mission's scientific goals is to search for and characterize a wide range of rocks and soils that hold clues to past water activity on Mars. The spacecraft will be targeted to sites that appear to have been affected by liquid water in the past.



Hardware
Immediately after landing, each rover will begin reconnaissance of its landing site by taking a 360-degree visible color and infrared image panorama. When a rover reaches a target, its multi-jointed arm will deploy and the target will be examined with a microscope and two spectrometers. The "RAT" (Rock Abrasion Tool) will be used to expose fresh rock surfaces for study. Images and spectra of interesting rocks and soils will be taken daily. These rovers will be able to travel almost as far in one sol as the Sojourner rover did over its entire lifetime. Surface operations will last for at least 90 days, extending into the early summer of 2004.

<back ------------ESA's Mars Express>

Did VIKING
Find LIFE on
Mars?
-BBC

NASA announces discovery
of water
on Mars

Water Flows on Mars
-BBC

NASA
Rovers
Slated to Examine
Two Interesting Sites on
Mars

Mars
Rovers
Science
Objectives

Mars
Today

Mars Exploration
Home
-NASA

Interview
with
NASA's
Mars
Program Director-SPACE.
COM