Mars Exploration

NASA and other countries’ space programs have been trying for decades to successfully land a rover on Mars that can support the theory that Mars can support life. Most countries have failed numerous times to land a rover on Mars, but the United States has been successful 8 times, but the Soviet Union, or Russia, has only been successful one time. These rovers help humans take steps closer to landing on and maybe even living on Mars. The NASA Mars Exploration is explained by analyzing the events leading up to current rover landings.

Mars is the fourth planet from the sun, or 140,000,000 miles. Mars is the last of the terrestrial planets, or rocky planets. Because Mars is the furthest away of the terrestrial planets, it is the coldest of them. The next set of planets after Mars are the gas giants. They are separated from the terrestrial planets by a belt of huge rocks. Since Mars is not that far away from Earth, scientists have predicted that Mars cannot be too different than the Earth itself. Even though scientists believe that Mars is habitable, they are set back because Mars shows signs of a dying planet. One sign is that Mars lacks a magnetic field. Scientists believe the lack of magnetic field is due to the cooling core of Mars, compared to Earth’s molten, boiling core. Mars is believed to be a dying planet also because the only water found is in the polar ice caps of the north and south poles.

Unlike Earth’s one moon, Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos. They were both founded in 1877 by American astronomer Asaph Hall. (Aldrin, 146)Phobos comes from the Greek word meaning fear. Deimos comes from the greek word meaning terror.

The moons are like huge asteroids orbiting Mars. Some scientists believe that Phobos and Deimos can be used at way points for when NASA sends humans to Mars. Also will probably be the first step of having a sustainable habitat on another planet. Also NASA will be able to run robots from there.

The United States have sent numerous missions to Mars; most failed, but some succeeded. The only other country to send a rover on to Mars is the Soviet Union. India and the European Space Agency have successfully sent spacecraft into the Martian orbit, but never on to the surface of Mars. The 8 successful rover missions were, Viking 1&2, Pathfinder, Spirit, Opportunity, Phoenix, Curiosity, and InSight. Less than half of the total missions sent to Mars have succeeded. There have been 56 total missions to Mars, and only 26 have succeeded.

The United States have sent many missions to Mars. Mariner 4 is the first ever successful missions to Mars. Mariner 4 was a mission to do a flyby of Mars. The spacecraft launched off of an Atlas LV-3 Agenda-D. The spacecraft followed a curved path around the sun, and then flew by Mars. It was the first spacecraft up to that time to attempt such a journey. When Mariner 3 failed, NASA realized that the cause of failure was the nose of the craft limited the opening of solar panels. Mariner 4 was successful because of the mistakes of Mariner 3 scientists. Mariner 6 and 7 were both flybys of Mars. Mariner 6 and 7 were aboard a Atlas-Centaur. “The pair was the second pair of NASA’s mariner series.”(NASA, Mariner 6 & 7) Mariner 6 and 7 analyzed the atmosphere. The Mariner pair also flew over the equator and southern polar regions of Viking 1 and 2 were an orbiter and lander pair. The vikings launched from Cape Canaveral aboard a Titan IIIE and a Centaur. After launch, everything was going very smoothly, and stayed that way until, it became the first project to successfully land on the Martian surface. The pair discovered unexpected and enigmatic chemical activity in the soil.(NASA, Viking 1&2) “The pair landed on the western slope of Chryse Planitia.” (NASA, Viking 1&2) The mission, after landing, lasted 90 days, sending images and soil sample results back to NASA. Both spacecrafts lasted a lot longer than expected and succeeded the amount of information expected, too.

The Mars Observer Mission was a close up study of Mars. During the mission, NASA and the rover were in constant communication, exchanging information, images, and commands. The spacecrafts seven instruments gathered data until 1995. In its prime, the Observer Mission was joined by the Russian spacecraft, Mars 94. The spacecraft was made to send data back to Earth and to experiment with packages the Russians planned to place of Mars. Communications were lost for a little bit, but then in 1993 they were reestablished. Finally in August of 1993 communications were lost forever. The lander failed because the stress of launch, or the opening of the solar panels caused a small dumping straut to snap, then that small piece got lodged in the fuselage or prevented a panel from opening fully.

The Pathfinder mission NASA sent to Mars, was one of the most successful missions in the history of successful missions. One of the top finds of the Pathfinder rovers were small pebbles or cobbles. Another find was a precise measurement of Mars’s pole of rotation and the rover’s landing site. The rover also told NASA that the airborne dust contains magnetic elements, and may prove a water cycle existed. Another proof that a water cycle had previously existed was early morning ice clouds were present. The mission was an ordinary rover mission, until it outlived predicted lifespan, and exceeded the data expected. Pathfinder launched on December 4, 1996 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The rover was designed to be a demo of a new was to deliver instrumented robots to the surface of Mars. It was the first ever robot to land on the surface of Mars.

The Mars Climate Orbiter, was a failed attempt by NASA to examine the Martian climate and atmosphere. It launched from Cape Canaveral on December 11, 1998. The craft arrived in Mars’s orbit on September 23, 1999. Then on December 3, 1999, the spacecraft entered into the Martian atmosphere, but soon after that it plummeted to the ground and opened a parachute, but communications were lost upon the spacecraft’s descent. NASA scientists say that the probable causes of the failure were site errors along with computer model errors, engine firing, or just a communication split. Soon after the launch of the Climate Orbiter, NASA sent another spacecraft to Mars. This was a pair of Polar Lander and Deep Space 2. The pair was equipped with a climate surveyor and Mars Volatiles. The pair launched on January 3, 1999. The pair was a probe and lander pair, that were supposed to survey the climate and probe into the martian polar regions. On the descent the pair lost communications with NASA, and never regained them.

Probably the most famous rover pair is Opportunity and Spirit. Spirit launched on June 10, 2003, and opportunity followed quickly on July 8, 2003 from Cape Canaveral. Spirit’s official end to its mission was on March 22, 2010, but Opportunity went on for almost nine more years, and then finally was declared officially over on February 13, 2019. The pair landed on opposite sides of Mars, and trekked along for many miles. The original goal was to search for a wide variety of rocks and soils that could prove that a water cycle did exist. Since leaving their landing sites, The two rovers have send hundreds of thousands of spectacular, HD, color images of Mars, along with detailed microscopic pictures of rocks and soils. With this data scientists have reconstructed a ancient past when Mars was covered in water.

The Phoenix mission was a lander that was first chosen in NASA’s scout program. After its launch from Cape Canaveral on August 4, 2007, it successfully landed on Mars further North than any other lander had gone before. The lander did this because it was designed to search for water on Mars, and the only water found before was in the polar ice caps of Mars. To better further the exploration the lander also scanned the atmosphere up to 20 kilometers(about 12.4 miles).

Another very famous mission is the Curiosity mission. Curiosity launched on November 26, 2011 from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. After launch the rover surprisingly stayed in excellent health and stayed that way for longer that expected 8.5 months. This was NASA’s most advanced rover yet, and after landing, it collects many samples, and takes many pictures. The rover was equipped with human like instruments.

InSight is a lander that is still working on Mars up to this day. The lander landed and immediately started to transmit pictures of the landing site. With this, NASA officially declared the Opportunity mission to be over. The lander placed a rover to study deep within Mars. This rover will help scientists better understand the process of how terrestrial planets are formed. The main purpose of InSight was to answer the question, “How are rocky planets formed?”

NASA’s Mars exploration is explained by analyzing the events and giving details about the missions. Evey rover NASA has sent to Mars, has provided valuable information that may someday get humans to live on Mars. Many countries have failed to get to Mars, but the United States and Russia have been successful. NASA has sent many advanced rovers to explore the Red Planet. Humans have tried, failed, succeeded to get a rover to Mars to some day get humans on Mars.

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