More than any other extraterrestrial planet in our solar system, none captures the imagination more than Mars. The latest visitor to Mars is an ambitious science package --NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) which is due to arrive today. This is by far the largest project to orbit the dry, cold and desolate planet. The MRO will use a variety of instruments to observe and probe Mars from orbit. Ground-penetrating radar will search for traces of water while incredibly high resolution optics will provide the best pictures yet of the Martian surface. Weather on Mars will be scrutinized to determine the atmosphere's structure and circulation. A Spectrometer will study the geology. All this is important because a lot depends on what this spacecraft will find. More information than ever will flow back to Earth and for good reason. NASA scientists will use what they learn from MRO to choose the places to go to next. Many robotic missions over the next decade are planned and when you are spending hundreds of millions of dollars each time you want to get the most bang for the buck.
As I write this, the people at Jet Propulsion Labaratory (JPL) are preparing the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to arrive at our distant neighbour. This is the crucial final phase of the trip where a mistake in the math could end your career. Of course if everything goes according to plan, we will be looking forward to lots of great images and important info from our red neighbour.
Follow up to our Trivia Question: It would take 171 years to drive to our sun at 100 km/h. Congratulations to Gil Tennant for getting it right!
Mars picture Credit: Hubble Space Telescope: NASA, ESA (STSci)
MRO picture Credit: NASA, JPL
Hi Steve
This is a great bit of information for public to look at. Mars our neighbour is beautiful, and if any one can look at it, they will se a beautiful site.
Keep up the great work.
Harry
Posted by: Harry Gilday | April 05, 2006 at 08:11 PM