Mars Exploration Rovers
 

Exciting information has been streaming back to Earth via the Mars Exploration Rovers... The facts below are taken from the NASA press release.

Fast Facts:

  • There were 10,000 suggestions for names for the two rovers rolling around Mars. The two names chosen were Spirit and Opportunity.
  • The rovers are 1.5 metres high, 2.3 metres wide and 1.6 metres long.
  • Weight 174 kilograms.
  • Powered by solar panels and lithium-ion battery system.
  • Panoramic cameras, microscopic imager, rock abrasion tool and magnet arrays are some of the instruments onboard.

Some of the Science Objectives:

  • "Search for and characterize a diversity of rocks and soils that hold clues to past water activity.
  • Investigate landing sites....
  • Extract clues from the geologic investigation, related to the environmental conditions when water was present and assess whether those environments were conducive for life."

Is there life on Mars? Was there life on Mars? It is hoped the little rovers can help answer these questions.


 View of 'Cape Verde' from 'Cape St. Mary' in Late Morning
 Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell

 

The rover will carry five scientific instruments and rock abrading device. The Panoramic Camera and the Miniature Thermal Emission Spectrometer are located on the large mast shown on the front of the rover. The camera will be supplied by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.; and the spectrometer will be supplied by Arizona State University in Tempe. The payload also includes magnetic targets, provided by the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark, that will collect magnetic dust for further study by the science instruments.

The Rock Abrasion Tool is located on a robotic arm that can be deployed to study rocks and soil.(In this view, the robotic arm is tucked under the front of the rover.) The tool, provided by Honeybee Robotics Ltd., New York, N.Y., will grind away the outer surfaces of rocks, which may be dusty and weathered, allowing the science instruments to determine the nature of rock interiors. The three instruments that will study the abraded rocks are a Mossbauer Spectrometer, provided by the Johannes Gutenberg- University Mainz, Germany; an Alpha-Proton X-ray Spectrometer provided by Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, also in Mainz, Germany; and a Microscopic Imager, supplied by JPL. The payload also includes magnetic targets, provided by the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark, that will collect magnetic dust for further study by the science instruments.

NASA