Let's Explore Mars


by Jeff Seward - Date: 2008-10-21 - Word Count: 597 Share This!

In June and July of 2003, two nASA launched rare robot rovers obliged for Mars. The goal of NASA was to assemble informations about our neighbour globe, the red earth called Mars. Previous expeditions of the last near 30 years have given us so much informations about Mars, but they have been passing visits and not enough records had been collected. Nevertheless this mission would be different. The two rovers were projected to last 90 Martian living at best, but even after more than 1000 Martian living on, they were still departures solid.

The two rovers were nicknamed Spirit and Opportunity. They weighed about 180 kg each, that is about 400 lbs in American language. They passed batteries, communication tackle, and solar panels. The rovers worn artificial intelligence that evened allowed them to reject to do what their controller told them, if the felt an action would be dangerous. Because of the conservative quality of their use, they lasted more than 10 time the epoch originally planned and have travelled a space of more than 10 miles across the Martian outside.

The first one to make it to the apparent of Mars was the rambler nicknamed Spirit. Spirit landed on Mars January 4th, 2004 in a bowl a measly 10km from the butt. Spirit made many important discoveries. From its shrink in the hole, it has discovered many rocks of volcanic basis and the action of subsurface water on these rocks. Spirit discovered patches of soil with a high salty pleased that tends to be caused by the older poise of water. It discovered also one particularly interesting sway, nicknamed Humphrey, a volcanic-like pitch twisted probably by magma. It had brightly coloured, mineralized parts inside, that would most prone be caused by water result its way into it, before, or sometime after the pitch was twisted. This finding abandoned has impassive doubts from many scientists whether water existed or not on Mars at sometime in the past.

Not only has Spirit helped us understand more on the geological and real aspects of Mars: Spirit took the first picture of Earth from the seeming of another world. It has also full night-time movies of the transit of the moons and even Mercury across the sun. Spirit was lucky enough to problem an astral outdo of the Mars' moon Phobos as it disappeared into the shadow of Mars.

The flash rover to make it to the shallow of Mars was Opportunity. It landed 21 existence after Spirit on January 25th, 2004. It landed on the opposed edge of the planet in a cavity in the heart of a patent. Opportunity worked extensively in craters on rocks presumably produced by sulphite sweet sands from evaporated lakes and that had been pushed and formed by the basics, curve, make, and water. Scientists wore this as testimony that water existed on Mars in obsolete times.

The two rovers have sent back hundreds of thousands of similes in both grey-balance and colour of the Martian seeming. The stunning panoramic shots can take your breath way. Equipping with a geological kit and motorized rock tools, they were able to look beneath the seeming to determine more than previously thought imaginable.

All these new discoveries have amplified our wisdom while at the same time increasing the total of question we have about Mars. Why did the water recede? Was their life on Mars? Could humans live on Mars? As these little rovers keep running, perhaps we will even have more questions answered in the near coming. Who knows what mendacity outside the next rock outcropping?

Related Tags: planets, facts about mars, mars facts, earth facts, moon facts, planet facts, facts about earth, facts about saturn, facts about jupiter, facts about venus, sun facts, jupiter facts, facts about mercury, saturn facts, mercury facts, venus facts, uranus facts

Information on facts about Mars can be found at the Planet Facts site.

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