On the 4th of July, 1997 (America's Independence Day) the mission, Mars Pathfinder landed on Mars. Mars is rust-coloured with a wide variety of angular and rounded rocks. We, as in humans, not know much about the Martian planet. Although two Viking Landers sent back images in the 1970's, Pathfinder's images are much more detailed, and hopes are high much will be learnt about the geology of the planet and whether it may have supported life and water. The Mars Pathfinder also is unique because of the Sojourner, nicknamed "Rover" Despite that it moves only 1.3 centimeters a second, it is hoped that Sojourner will be able to give scientist a good idea of the geology of a few dozen square meters of the planet. In landing on the "Red Planet" The Mars Pathfinder set several first:
- It was the first spacecraft to land on a planet without orbiting it.
- It was the first to deploy a parachute at a supersonic speed of 1,600 kilometers an hour
- It was the first to use airbags, similar to but larger than those used in cars, to cushion the impact of the landing. This was a risky but money-saving maneuver that had never been tried before.
The main aim of these missions to Mars is to discover if life has ever existed on Mars, or indeed if life could be maintained on Mars. We, on Earth have a great thirst for discovering if there is life in the universe and satisfying our basic need to explore.
The main quest is to discover if Mars was ever warm enough for a time to keep water from freezing. Rock studies would reveal this. The sojourner would explore the Martian surface, taking close up photos of rock and shifting out chemicals that could tell if conditions were suitable for life.
Pathfinder was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida on December 2nd 1996 and arrived on Mars on July 4th 1997. It had covered a journey of 497 million kilometers in 211 days. It actually touched down 11 minutes before anyone knew it - this is because it takes 11 minutes for the radio waves to reach Earth. The landing was perfect.
Mars Pathfinder landed right side up, in good condition with all its electronics working well. The Pathfinders cocoon of 16 airbags cushioned the impact of the high speed direct decent from space. As I mentioned before this had never been tried before and it was a money saving maneuver. The parachute was deployed at a speed of 1,600 kilometers an hour. The Pathfinder was tracked by 3 international tracking stations, one of which was Tidbinbilla, in Canberra. The landing site is named the Carl Sagan Memorial Station in honor of the last US astronomer.
The Sojourner Rover rolled off the Pathfinder probe and after a night spent parked in the Martian dust it began exploring the nearby rocks and soil. The Sojourner is about the size of a microwave oven and is solar powered. The computer on board sent back about 200 MB (megabytes) of data in 7 days.
Next Page -->
|
|
|
|
- Main
- Contact
- Comptech Webring
- Guestbook
- Site Tour
- CL-Help
|
Space Poll
|
What event will next be achieved?
|
|
Back_
_ 
Top_