1.0 Introduction Mars is the fourth planet from the sun, and considering the vast expanse of the universe, Mars is only a mere 49 million miles from Earth (All About Mars). Mars has been the object of many speculative questions and hypotheses, such as the possibility of life ever existing on Mars. Over the years, many have wondered if Mars ever sustained life, or if not, if it were possible to one day sustain life, i.e. Humans. There have been many missions to Mars in an attempt to answer those and other questions, such as the three separate rover craft missions, the ‘Spirit’ Rover, the ‘Opportunity’ Rover and the ‘Curiosity’ Rover that will be discussed in this paper. Most recently, the idea to put humans on Mars has gained traction and …show more content…
According to NASA, ‘Spirit’ was designated as a stationary research platform after becoming stuck in the sands in a location called Troy and unable to free itself. (Unfree Spirit: NASA's Mars Rover Appears Stuck for Good - Scientific American). This is not to say, however, that the ‘Spirit’ rover was completely useless. It served as a “radio beacon” as Mars travels through space, which serves as a tool in assessing whether or not Mars has a molten core like Earth. The data collected of Mars’ axis movement, will help scientists prove or disprove the hypothesis of Mars having a molten core (Unfree Spirit: NASA's Mars Rover Appears Stuck for Good - Scientific American).
2.5 Officially, on May 25, 2011, the ‘Spirit’ mission on Mars was concluded after not receiving a signal from the rover since March 22, 2010 (Seman, Calvin, 2012). Scientists had been attempting to contact the rover with over 1300 signals but to no avail (Seman, Calvin, 2012). 3.0 Opportunity
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The grinder grinds the surface of the rock and the brush removes excess debris to expose parts of the rock that have not been contaminated by other elements on Mars (Leer, et al, 2006). The newly exposed rock can then be examined (Leer, et al, 2006). The ‘RAT’ drills a hole 5mm deep and 45 mm wide to allow the inner contents of the rock to be further examined and studied (Thomas M. Myrick, et al., 2004). The Rock Abrasion Tool, is also equipped with four magnets that are held 4mm from the rock’s surface which attracts the dust from the rock when the grinder is working on the rock (Leer, et al, 2006). The magnets’ purpose is to attract magnetic particles from the rock to further be analyzed (Leer, et al,
Would you want to live on Mars? Some would say yes, others no, I am against going to Mars and think that we should stick to Earth and put our time, money, and energy into fixing this planet. I will show you all the reason why we can not go to that red planet.
Sojourner landed in 1997 and was the size of a small dog. It’s wheels grinded into the martian soil to detect any living thing of life on Mars. It had cameras for the eyes, to look at it’s surroundings. It was about 2
Many important themes can be drawn from reading Roving Mars that share important lessons about the scientific process. This personal account by the author, Steven Squyres, shares his story of passion toward being able to play a hand in the exploration of mars. The account shares many valuable lessons that we can learn for the scientific process and trend that appear in most scientific discovery. The greatest theme that can be gathered from Squyres story is that Science is never easy and it may come with many failures but the most important thing to do is persevere through these challenges. Another important thing to gather from the book is that not all discovery involves proving everything right or testing everything then and there to see if
The Martian is about an astronaut, Mark Watney, who gets stranded on the surface of Mars for over 500 days without anyone knowing, at first. He has to survive in the martian atmosphere by creating his own water and even growing his own plants! Mark sets out from his HAB on a rover to travel a distance to an old rover named Sojourner. He brings back Sojourner hoping to connect communication with Earth. Mark soon becomes low on supplies and needs help soon. Will Mark achieve communication with Earth and miraculously get rescued?
Who knows what kind of opportunities can come from Mars? We can use the many resources that have already been found on this planet, it could help us in many ways beyond space exploration, and it could even be a new place for us to live. That’s why I believe that the government should fund space exploration to Mars.
“I think humans will reach Mars, and I would like to see it happen in my lifetime” was said by Buzz Aldrin, a NASA astronaut. The former American aeronaut from Montclair, New Jersey believes that since Mars does exist, it is waiting to be reached by humans. When this would happen, he says that the human race would “evolve into a two-planet species.” Present day Mars has a lot of canyons, mountains and volcanoes. Even though the surface is Mars is very old, scientists learned about different younger rift valleys, plains, hills and ridges. According to recent reports, there were lakes and rivers, along with an ocean billions of years ago. The low temperatures on the planet cause there to be polar ice caps and frozen water present. Scientists continue to notice several discoveries on the planet that lead them to think there was once life on the planet. Different clues have scientists wanting to find out about even more. Many scientists in the past few centuries have been curious if life on Mars is possible or if it has ever been before.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) launched two similar twin robotic rovers, which were Spirit and Opportunity toward Mars on 10 June and 7 July 2003 (NASA 2012). Spirit and Opportunity landed in Gusev Crater on 4 January 2004 and in Meridiani Planum on 25 January 2004 respectively (NASA 2012). Opportunity is still operating and roving after 10 years on the Martian surface while final communication of Spirit to the Earth took place on 22 March 2010, which is around six years into its mission (NASA 2012). The rovers were thought to last 20 times longer as compared to its original design. As part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, the Mars Exploration Rover mission is a continuing multi-mission effort to study Mars as a possible habitation for past or present life and to look for signs of life as well as to prepare for human exploration. Primary objective of the Mars Exploration Rover mission is to explore and characterize a wide range of soils and rocks that possess clues or evidences to past water activity on Mars (NASA 2012).
The Climax in The Martian takes place when pathfinder, the communication device that Mark was using in order to talk to NASA has one of its wires fried and loses its capability to transmit messages over such extreme distances. This occurred when Mark was working on the rover to prepare it for his final trip on mars to the Ares 4 site when he set a drill he was using very close to Pathfinder without noticing and the wires from the drill touched Pathfinder. Since the drill was so much more powerful than Pathfinder the amount of electricity it transmitted when the wires touched was enough to cause the wires of Pathfinder to fry. Power traveled from the drill line's positive lead, through the work bench...and
After spending years on finding life on the Mars NASA has failed to find any evidence that its atmosphere is supporting any kind of life. The patches of colors which were noticed by the astronomers in 1950s and found that they change with the seasons were found nothing but a false story (Getz & McCarty, 1997). Now NASA has declared that there are no color patches, canals and seasonal changes occur in the Mars. They are of the view that no life exist in Mars. Most of the scientists believe that instead of wasting time and money on finding life in Mars we should move towards other planet so we can find life
He knew it would be quick because now in 2100 it only took 6 hours. He had all is computers set up at his house and would get right back to watch it fly onto Mars. Just then he remembered he had school the next day, and he wouldn't be able to watch it searching all around. When he went to school the next day he couldn't think about anything but his probe. When he got back he got back, he had three messages and an unfixable error code.
The recent events regarding the NASA Mars probes have renewed the debate of reinstalling manned space missions with the objectives of exploring and landing on foreign worlds such as the moon and the red planet Mars, rather than the use of solely robotic craft and machines. It is my belief that we should return to the days of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, those of manned lunar landings and manned space exploration. Robots simply cannot and should not be allowed to be the sole means of visiting these worlds, nor should humans only be able to witness new findings second hand through the use of computers and machines. It is human nature to be normally curious of one’s surroundings, and it is important that we send one of our own to new worlds. The effects that past missions have had on the world’s people, as well as our political and cultural climates are another valid reason for flesh instead of metal to lay claim to space. Also, the limitless applications and new education that manned flights can bring to us from on site human interactions could lead to another technological and industrial revolution like the original lunar programs had done for us during the Gemini and Apollo programs.
...l continue until a man walks on Mars. The main goal of the past missions was to search for water. It was not until the launch of Curiosity in 2012 where physical evidence of water was found. Before this mission, the goal of the program was to take detailed pictures of Mars to create maps, find obstacles and choose possible dig sites. Since Curiosity’s discovery, Opportunity has found possible sources of water. These two discoveries set up future missions. On these missions, the rovers will search for life, try to find out how Mars was formed and update the data and pictures from previous missions. It is unclear exactly what instruments will be included in future missions but it can be reasoned that that they will include some items from previous missions along with new instruments to detect life and other things based on what the goals may be of the future missions
Is there life on Mars? Almost every person in science has asked this question at least once in their life. While there are people who believe that there is, there are also the naysayers. Mars is one of the planets that have eluded us for centuries while we have landed on it and done studies; we have still yet to fully say that there was life on mars or that there currently is life on mars. Some scientists have dedicated their lives to finding out the answer. In this paper, both sides will be represented to fully understand this difficult question.
If you were magically able to take a road trip to Mars for the day, you would stumble upon rocks, walk through valleys, maybe even take a look at the second largest mountain in our solar system; Olympus Mons. However, due to today’s low atmospheric pressure on Mars, there is no water, no life, and the hypothetical road trip wouldn’t work because you would not be able to breathe. The water-less Mars we know today, hasn’t always been just a red planet. Previous studies beginning in the late 70’s and again in the 90’s detected evidence of water once occurring on Mars. However, a new scientific study led by Sharon Wilson of the Smithsonian Institution and the University of Virginia, shows water on Mars may have existed earlier than previously thought.
With a field as large as space is, metaphorically and literally, there is no end to all the advantages that can come of exploring the magnificent cosmos. One of the major questions we face currently is the possibility of life on other planets. “NASA's biggest ambition is the hunt for life and a habitat that can support life. Several planned or prepared missions will specifically explore the question of whether or not life exists, or once existed, elsewhere in out solar system” (Folger 3). That's exactly what we plan on using the Curiosity rover for. The MSL (Mars Space Laboratory) Curiosity rover was launched November 26th, 2011 and landed on Mars on August 6th, 2012 (Launch 2). “MSL Curiosity's mission is to analyze the climate, geology, and habitability of Mars to see if there is or has ever been life on Mars. Then, after gathering enough data, it will see if it's feasible to send a manned mission to Mars” (Anthony 2). We are already searching ...