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This Page Will Link You To Web Pages Of Interest About NASA's Exploration Of Mars


Mars (Mapped Sphere)
Mars (Hubble Telescope)

The Sojourner
(Pathfinder-1997)

2005 Mission - Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter (MRO):

Mars Reconnaisance Rover
Launch: August, 2005 / Arrival: March, 2006 / Science Mission: Nov. 2006 - Nov. 2008
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will study the history of water on Mars. After a seven-month cruise to Mars and six months of aerobraking to reach its science orbit, the MRO's science instruments will zoom in for extreme close-up photography of the martian surface, analyze minerals, look for subsurface water, trace how much dust and water are distributed in the atmosphere, and monitor daily global weather.

The MRO will increase tenfold the number of spots surveyed close-up. One of the Mars Reconnaissance orbiter's cameras is the largest ever flown on a planetary mission. While previous cameras on other Mars orbiters could identify objects no smaller than a school bus, this camera will be able to spot something as small as a dinner table. That capability will also allow the orbiter to identify obstacles like large rocks that could jeopardize the safety of future landers and rovers. Its imaging spectrometer will also be able to look at small-scale areas about five times smaller than a football field, at a scale perfect for identifying any hot springs or other small water features.

The orbiter's telecommunications systems will also establish a crucial service for future spacecraft, becoming the first link in a communications bridge back to Earth. The orbiter also carries an experimental navigation camera. If it performs well, similar cameras placed on orbiters of the future would be able to serve as high-precision interplanetary "eyes" to guide incoming landers to precise landings on Mars, opening up exciting-but otherwise dangerous-areas of the planet to exploration.

The orbiter's primary mission ends about five-and-a-half years after launch, on December 31, 2010. Here are some views of the MRO and its instrumentation:

MRO Over MarsHIRISE (hi-res camera)CRISM spectrometer

In-depth information about the scientific instrumentation can be found HERE.

Here are links to mission updates and images from this mission:

The Mars "2003" Missions:

2003-4 Mars Exploration Rover Mission
Launch: May-July 2003 / Arrival: January 2004

NOW ON MARS

Two powerful new Mars rovers have travelled to, and landed on, the red planet. Their names are Spirit and Opportunity. With far greater mobility than the 1997 Mars Pathfinder rover, these robotic explorers will be able to trek up to 100 meters (about 110 yards) across the surface each Martian day. Each rover carries a sophisticated set of instruments that will allow them to search for evidence of liquid water, either "ancient" (from the planet's past) or currently present.

The rovers are identical to each other, but have landed at different regions of Mars, approximately on either side of the planet. The Spirit rover has landed at a site with indicators that it might be an old lake bed. Opportunity's landing site contains the mineral crystal hematite, which often is formed when water is present.

Here are some views of the rovers and their scientific instrumentation:

In-depth information about the scientific instrumentation can be found HERE at the Athena site at Cornell University.

The Planetary Society has a Web site about its role in creating first privately-funded educational experiment to fly on a planetary mission (a specially crafted DVD with the names of four million people who signed up to have their names put onto Mars and a design with magnets to determine Martian soil coloration.) It's called: Red Rover Goes to Mars

Links to mission updates and images from this mission:

Mars Express
Launch: June 2003/Arrival: December 2003
NASA is participating in a mission planned by the European Space Agency and the Italian space agency called Mars Express, which will explore the atmosphere and surface of Mars from polar orbit. The spacecraft will carry a science payload with some heritage from European instruments lost on the ill-fated Russian Mars '96 mission, as well as a communications relay to support lander missions. Mars Express will itself carry a small lander as well.

The Mars Express Orbiter successfully arrive into Mars orbit in December,2003. The satelitte contains the following instrumentation:

  • High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC)
  • Energetic Neutral Atoms Analyser (ASPERA)
  • Planetary Fourier Spectrometer (PFS)
  • Visible and Infra Red Mineralogical Mapping Spectrometer (OMEGA)
  • Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding (MARSIS)
  • Mars Radio Science Experiment (MaRS)
  • Ultraviolet and Infrared Atmospheric Spectrometer (SPICAM);
Communication has been established with the orbiter and data from these instruments is expected to add to the understanding of Mars' atmosphere and planetary makeup.

The Beagle 2 was a late addition to the mission. It is a frisbee-shaped instrumentation package intended to land on Mars. Beagle 2 was released and did reach the surface of Mars. Unfortunately, all attempts to gain a signal from Beagle 2 have thus far failed.

UPDATE: MARSIS Antenna - After a delay of the July, 2004 scheduled deployment, on May 10, 2005 and June 14, 2005 the two arms of the MARSIS antenna were successfully fully extended and began to probe beneath the surface of Mars, searching for underground features which may further the search for water on Mars.

The 2001 Mars Odyssey Mission:

NOW IN MARS ORBIT

  • Launched: April 7, 2001
  • Arrived: October 24, 2001

    • On April 7, 2001, the 2001 Mars Odyssey launched on a Delta II launch vehicle from Cape Canaveral, Florida and will arrive at Mars on October 24, 2001. After firing its main engine to slow itself enough to be captured by Mars' gravity, the orbiter will initially circle that planet once every 25 hours. Over the next 76 days, the spacecraft will gradually edge closer to Mars, using the friction of the atmosphere to lower its orbit (a technique called aerobraking) until it reaches a 2-hour science orbit. Without aerobraking, the spacecraft would need to carry much more fuel. The spacecraft will then begin its science mapping orbit for 917 Earth days, and will also serve as a communications relay for U.S. and international landers arriving at Mars in 2003/2004.

    Odyssey's primary science mission will take place January, 2002 through July, 2004. For the first time, the mission will map the amount and distribution of chemical elements and minerals that make up the Martian surface. The spacecraft will especially look for hydrogen, most likely in the form of water ice, in the shallow subsurface of Mars. It will also record the radiation environment in low Mars orbit to determine the radiation-related risk to any future human explorers who may one day go to Mars.

    Learn more:

  • Mission Status: "Where Is Odyssey Now?"
          (See a simulated view of the actual position of the Odyssey orbiting above Mars)
  • Images From Odyssey: "Image Gallery"
          Here are two samples of the detailed imagery returned from Odyssey:
    Tithonium ChasmaGanges Chasma
  • Launch Details: The April 7th Launch
  • Mission Overview: Mars Odyssey Overview
    The Mars Surveyor "'98" Mission:

    On September 23, 1999, the Mars Climate Orbiter disappeared entering Mars orbit. For more about the reasons, Click Here

    On December 3, 1999, the Polar Lander descended to the surface of Mars, but did not communicate with Earth. On March 28, 2000, NASA released its findings as to what went wrong.

    CLICK HERE to read the findings for yourself.

    To learn about the intended status methods of the Polar Explorer, Click Here
    To learn more about the Polar Explorer Mission, Click Here

    Mars Polar Lander Web Sites

    NASA TV And Web Cams


    The Mars Pathinder Mission:
    The Pathfinder landed on Mars on July 4th, 1997. At 5:07 pm ET the Pathfinder started communicating with Earth as planned.
    At 1:40 am ET on July 6th, the Sojourner rover drove off the rear lander ramp onto the Martian surface!

    These are images transmitted from the Pathfinder mission:

    Ambit's Moving Panoramas Of Mars
    The Martian Panoramas Are Brought To You By PanaView
    a remarkable Java applet by Jeremy Childs.
    More About Pathfinder

    More About Mars
      MARS MOLA VIEWER:
    • The Mars Orbiter Laser Alitimeter experiment carried on the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft produced a topographic map of the entire surface of Mars. The data for this map is available on the Internet. Michael MacDonald's Mars MOLA Viewer will download this data for you and render it as a 3-D landscape which you can "fly" through in real-time.
      MARS WALLPAPER:
    • Download And Install Mars Wallpaper Collection of images taken by the Pathfinder and use them on your desktop.
    WHO NEEDS WEB SITES?

    The Space Telescope Science Institute publishes "Electronic PictureBooks" including one about Mars called "Images From Mars." These multimedia publications are authored by space scientists, engineers, and astronauts.

    Interested? You need to download two files which will install everything you need when you run them. One is the PictureBook and the other is a program to view it.
    Here's what you need to do:

    For Windows users:
    1) Download the necessary WinPlus Runtime file directly from here.
    2) Now download the Mars PictureBook file (2.1 Meg) for Windows.
    3) Install the Mars PictureBook file and then install the WinPlus Runtime program. Now run WinPlus and load the PictureBook file into the WinPlus program.

    For Macintosh users:
    1) Download the necessary Hypercard 2.1 file directly from here.
    2) Now download the Mars PictureBook file (1.8 Meg) for Macintosh.
    3) Install the Mars PictureBook file and then install the Hypercard program. Now run Hypercard and load the PictureBook file into the Hypercard program.

    There are more Electronic PictureBooks. You can read descriptions on this page. If you have a Macintosh, you can also download from this page. But if you run Windows, this site does not seem to be set up with a Web page for Windows downloads. Luckily, you'll find all the files described, ready for downloading, in this Windows File List.

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