 | Patsy Terrell is public relations and events coordinator of The Kansas Cosmosphere, located at 1100 N. Plum in Hutchinson. The Cosmosphere’s mission is to honor the past and inspire the future of space exploration. They provide information, education and entertainment with regard to science. You can contact Pasty by phone at 620-662-6305; by email at patsyt@cosmo.org or at The Kansas Cosmosphere, 1100 N. Plum, Hutchinson, KS 67501. |
Science
2011-06-01 10:02:00
New rovers for Mars?
Question: Are there any new rovers set to explore Mars?
Answer: The Mars Rover, “Curiosity,” will launch this November and arrive on Mars in August of 2012.
Curiosity is a mobile laboratory designed to investigate whether conditions have been favorable for life and to examine clues in the rocks about possible past life. Curiosity will roam Mars for nearly two years with a greater range than any previous Mars rover. During that time it will analyze dozens of samples drilled from rocks or scooped from the ground.
Curiosity was named by a sixth-grade Lenexa, KS, student, Clara Ma. As her prize the 12-year-old won a trip to California where she was invited to sign her name directly onto the rover during its assembly at JPL. She won the honor of naming it by submitting the winning essay.
Much larger than the three previous Mars rovers, Curiosity is about nine feet long and weighs 2,000 pounds. Spirit and Opportunity landed in 2004. They were preceded by Sojourner, which landed in 1997.
Curiosity will use 10 science instruments to examine rocks, soil and atmosphere. A laser will vaporize rock from a distance, and another instrument will search for organic compounds. It has mast-mounted cameras to study from a distance, arm-mounted tools to study targets within reach, and deck-mounted instruments to analyze rock and soil samples.
It is believed large parts of Mars may have been covered with water at one point, and the Mars rover Spirit sampled some chemical compounds containing water molecules in 2007. A year later the Phoenix lander sampled water ice in Martian soil.
Mars is often called the “Red Planet,” because the iron oxide on the surface gives it a reddish tint. It has volcanoes, valleys, deserts and polar ice caps just like Earth. It is the fourth planet from the Sun and our closest neighbor. It can be seen from Earth with the naked eye. Mars is about half the size of the Earth.
