Mars 2003 and 2005 Missions

The Mars 2003 mission will consist of two identical rovers, which will be a large (~130 kg) vehicles based on the Athena Rover design that was originally considered for the Mars 2001 mission. The rovers will be landed using an airbag system similar to that used on Mars Pathfinder but without the stationary lander. The first landing is scheduled to take place on 2 January 2004 and the second 18 days later on 20 January. The landing sites have not yet been selected, but will be in two different regions of Mars. The mission should last for at least 90 days each, until late April. The rovers are designed to cover roughly 100 meters each martian day, or sol (approximately 24 hours, 37 minutes). They will carry a scientific packages which will include a panoramic camera (Pancam), a rock abrasion tool (RAT) to expose fresh surfaces of rock, a miniature thermal infrared spectrometer (MiniTES), a microscopic camera, a Mossbauer spectrometer, and an alpha-proton-X-ray spectrometer (APXS).

Mars 2005

Orbiter and/or Lander/Rover