A new Mars rover is approaching final countdown and will soon be launched towards our red neighbor in search of life. Curiosity Rover is fitted on an Atlas rocket with a launch date of November 25th, 2011. Following in the footsteps of Mariner, the twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity (officially known as the Mars Exploration Rovers) and Phoenix, Curiosity will make the 9 month journey to land on Mars in August 2012.
Everything about Curiosity is different from the previous rovers sent to Mars, starting from how it will land. The previous rovers Spirit and Opportunity used air bags to gently "crash" land on Mars. Five time larger than the Mars Exploration Rovers, Curiosity is much too large to use such a landing method. Instead, the landing will be a controlled rocket descent. This precision landing will touchdown the Curiosity rover near the Gale Crater. This landing site was selected after years of surveying to find the most interesting area which could most safely be accessed.
Much larger than the previous rovers, this mammoth 6 wheeled robot is nuclear powered which will greatly expand its ability to explore the Martian landscape. Curiosity will begin a 2 year mission as it studies the surrounding area. When it comes to the length of the mission, let us not discount the incredible success rate we have had in the past. The mission for Spirit and Opportunity was only supposed to be 90 days but was extended to over six years. Galileo, which reached Jupiter in 1995, extended its five-year mission another three years and plunged into the Jovian atmosphere in 2008. Recently, the Messenger mission orbiting Mercury was extended another year.
With 10 scientific instruments strapped on, Curiosity is going to do a lot of science. The main goal will be to gather information for why the Martian environment turned so unfavorable for life. We know Mars had a thicker atmosphere and running water on its surface millions of years ago. Today the Martian atmosphere is so thin to almost be non-existent and only ice can exist on its surface. Discovering what happened to turn Mars into this desert environment will also help us decide if life ever had a chance of existing on Mars.
Curiosity, and its sister probe which will orbit the red planet, will continue to explore the Martian weather and focus on how much water Mars may have had in the past. Other measurements will allow us to determine the effects the solar wind has on the Martian atmosphere which does not have a magnetic field to protect itself like the Earth has. These two newest probes will pave the way for an eventual manned landing which is now in the earliest stages of development.
Christopher Maruca has been an observer of the sky for many years. Visit his website to read his opinion on the best telescopes including the popular Orion SkyQuest XT8. Read more about what you can observe with the Orion Skyquest XT8 here: Observing with the Orion XT8.
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