Mars Rovers

Posted by Milly Jons on December 27th, 2019

After years of successful Moon exploration with rovers, people turned their eyes to the nearest to Earth planet of the Solar system. Six rovers have been sent to Mars since 1971. The first unmanned Mars space probes were launched by the USSR in 1971. Mars 2 and Mars 3 were launched on 19 and 28 May respectively, from Baikonur space launching site. Twin space probes carried landers with rovers PROP-M weighing 4.5 kg. Mars 2 reached Mars’s orbit in six months. The mission was passing under the plan before landing. However, Mars 2 lander was crashed after a hard landing on November 2, 1971. It was the first artificial object that reached the surface of the Red planet. Another similar space probe Mars 3 was launched nine days after Mars 2. It settled in the orbit of Mars on December 2, 1971. The descent module alighted softly but the signal from the spaceship was lost almost 15 sec after landing. Thus, the rover PROP-M was not deployed. Although Mars 3 managed to transmit the first photograph from Mars to Earth, it was impossible to identify anything. Both missions of rovers failed; however they greatly benefited planetary scientists.

The next Mars rover was launched only in 25 years. NASA launched Mars Pathfinder spacecraft on December 4, 1996. It had a small rover called Sojourner, which was attached to the board. Mars Pathfinder successfully landed on the Red planet on July 4. When the lander exposed Sojourner, it started to explore the surface of Mars. The rover had 10 kilograms in weight but on Mars it weighed over 4 kilograms. Sojourner had six wheels and eleven electric motors. It was also equipped with three cameras and spectrometer. Two frontal cameras were designed to produce stereo image. The spectrometer allowed it to determine elemental composition of Martian dust and soil. Sojourner had solar batteries. NASA supposed the mission would last for 7 sols and Sojourner was expected to operate for 30 sols at most. Nevertheless, Sojourner was operating for 83 sols, while Pathfinder’s descent module worked. The descent module collapsed on September 2, 1997. NASA lost the contact with Sojourner because Pathfinder operated as a transponder. This long lifetime of Sojourner would not have been possible without advanced security system. Rover Control Software provided Sojourner with information about the shortest and the safest route. During the Mars Pathfinder mission the rover collected very significant data on chemical composition of the Martian soil, stones and rock. Sojourner is the first successful Mars rover in the history.

NASA Mars Exploration Rover mission had a scientific purpose to explore Mars. Under the mission, two carrier rockets with rovers on board were launched. The first rover Spirit (MER-A) was launched by Delta II launch vehicle on June 10, 2003. It made a soft landing on Mars on January 4, 2004. Spirit was a six-wheeled machine powered by a solar panel. Spirit was equipped with the most powerful camera on rovers ever. It provided high-quality photographs from Mars. Also it featured a drill for soil investigation. Spirit had even more advanced security system, which allowed the rover to operate during six years. Firstly, NASA planned that Spirit would operate for 90 sols, but it was active much longer. Spirit had been operating for 2210 sols until it stuck in a sand dune on May 1, 2009. The last signal from Spirit was received on March 22, 2010.

Another Mars rover was launched on July 7, 2003. Opportunity (MER-B) was a rover identical to Spirit. It was deployed from the lander on January 25, 2004. Opportunity is still active and continues to conduct experiments on Mars. The rover has the same construction and mission as its twin Spirit. Opportunity explored a lot of Martian craters. It still gathers significant data from Mars and transmits it to Earth via its descent module. Today Opportunity is the longest operating apparatus on Mars.

According to NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the rover Curiosity was sent to Mars. It was launched on November 26, 2011 and made a soft landing on the surface of the planet on August 6, 2012. Curiosity is the largest and the heaviest rover among all previous ones; it weighs over 899 kilograms. In fact, Curiosity is a six-wheeled mobile chemical laboratory aimed to conduct a comprehensive analysis of Martian soil and atmosphere. Additionally, Curiosity is aimed at finding out whether there was life on Mars and preparing the possible place for human landing. While its predecessors were powered by solar batteries, Curiosity is powered by a radioisotope thermoelectric generator. It is equipped with powerful camera system consisting of 17 cameras of various purposes. NASA plans that Curiosity will complete the mission within 668 sols; it has already spent 334 sols on Mars. Successful work of Curiosity inspired NASA specialists to use its design for future Mars rovers.

Mars rovers are a promising approach to exploration of the Red planet. They allow to explore bigger territories than stationary landers and to analyze the Martian soil and the atmosphere in terms of physics. This would provide planetary scientists with all important information for taking another step in space exploration. Curiosity and Opportunity will bring closer the day when a man would set foot on the Martian soil.

The essay was conducted by the professional writer from best plagiarism checker service - Milly Jones.