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The rovers will bounce to airbag-cushioned landings at sites offering a balance of |
favorable conditions for safe landings and interesting science. The designated site for |
the first mission is Gusev Crater. The second rover will go to a site called Meridiani |
Planum. "Gusev and Meridiani give us two different types of evidence about liquid |
water in Mars' history," said Dr. Joy Crisp, Mars Exploration Rover project scientist at |
JPL. "Gusev appears to have been a crater lake. The channel of an ancient riverbed |
indicates water flowed right into it. Meridiani has a large deposit of gray hematite, a |
mineral that usually forms in a wet environment," Crisp said. |
The rovers, working as robotic field geologists, will examine the sites for clues about |
what happened there. "The clues are in the rocks, but you can't go to every rock, so |
you split the job into two pieces," said Dr. Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Ithaca, |
N.Y., principal investigator for the package of science instruments on the rovers. |
First, a panoramic camera at human-eye height, and a miniature thermal emission |
spectrometer, with infrared vision, help scientists identify the most interesting rocks. |
The rovers can watch for hazards in their way and maneuver around them. Each six- |
wheeled robot has a deck of solar panels, about the size of a kitchen table, for power. |
The rover drives to the selected rock and extends an arm with tools on the end. Then, |
a microscopic imager, like a geologist's hand lens, gives a close-up view of the rock's |
texture. Two spectrometers identify the composition of the rock. The fourth tool substi- |
tutes for a geologist's hammer. It exposes the fresh interior of a rock by scraping away |
the weathered surface layer. |
launch vehicles. Launch opportunities begin for the first mission at 2:06 p.m. EDT June |
8 and for the second mission at 12:38 a.m. EDT June 25, and repeat twice daily for up |
to 21 days for each mission. |
decade of Mars exploration that will ultimately provide the knowledge necessary for |
human exploration," said Orlando Figueroa, director of the Mars Exploration Program |
at NASA Headquarters. |
NASA will feature live webcasts of the launches on the Internet at: |
Cornell University’s web site on the science payload is at: |
- end - |
Media Services Information |
NASA Television Transmission |
NASA Television is broadcast on the satellite AMC-2, transponder 9C, C band, 85 |
at 6.8 MHz. The schedule for Mars arrival television transmissions will be available |
from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA; and NASA Headquarters, |
Launch Media Credentialing |
News media representatives who would like to cover the launch in person must be |
accredited through the NASA Kennedy Space Center newsroom. Journalists may con- |
tact the newsroom at 321/867-2468 for more information. |
An extensive schedule of news and background briefings will beheld at JPL during the |
landing period, with later briefings originating jointly from JPL and NASA Headquarters. |
A schedule of briefings is available on the Internet at JPL's Mars News site (below). |
Internet Information |
Extensive information on the Mars Exploration Rover project including an electronic |
copy of this press kit, press releases, fact sheets, status reports, briefing schedule and |
images, is available from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Mars Exploration Rover |
newsroom website: . The Mars Exploration Rover project |
also maintains a web site at: . Cornell University’s web |
site on the science payload is at: . |
Quick Facts |
Cruise vehicle dimensions: 2.65 meters (8.7 feet) diameter, 1.6 meters (5.2 feet) tall |
Rover dimensions: 1.5 meter (4.9 feet) high by 2.3 meters (7.5 feet) wide by 1.6 meter (5.2 |
feet) long |
Weight: 1,062 kilograms (2,341 pounds) total at launch, consisting of 174-kilogram (384- |
pound) rover, 365-kilogram (805-pound) lander, 198-kilogram (436-pound) backshell |
and parachute, 90-kilogram (198-pound) heat shield and 183-kilogram (403-pound) |
cruise stage, plus 52 kilograms (115 pounds) of propellant |
Science instruments: Panoramic cameras, miniature thermal emission spectrometer, |
Mössbauer spectrometer, alpha particle X-ray spectrometer, microscopic imager, |
rock abrasion tool, magnet arrays |
Rover A Mission |
Launch vehicle: Delta II 7925 |
Launch period: June 8-24, 2003 |
Earth-Mars distance at launch: 105 million kilometers (65 million miles) |
Mars landing: Jan. 4, 2004, at about 2 p.m. local Mars time (8:11 p.m. Jan. 3 PST) |
Landing site: Gusev Crater, possible former lake in giant impact crater |
Earth-Mars distance on landing day: 170.2 million kilometers (105.7 million miles) |
One-way speed-of-light time Mars-to-Earth on landing day: 9.46 minutes |
Total distance traveled Earth to Mars (approximate): 500 million kilometers (311 million miles) |
Near-surface atmospheric temperature at landing site: -100 C (-148 F) to 0 C (32 F) |
Primary mission: 90 Mars days, or "sols" (equivalent to 92 Earth days) |
Rover B Mission |
Launch vehicle: Delta II 7925H (larger solid-fuel boosters than 7925) |
Launch period: June 25-July 15, 2003 |
Earth-Mars distance at launch: 89 million kilometers (55 million miles) |
Mars landing: Jan. 25, 2004, at about 1:15 p.m. local Mars time (8:56 p.m. Jan. 24 PST) |
Landing site: Meridiani Planum, where mineral deposits suggest wet past |
Landing time: Approximately 1:15 p.m. local Mars time (8:56 p.m. PST) |
Earth-Mars distance on landing day: 198.7 million kilometers (123.5 million miles) |
One-way speed-of-light time Mars-to-Earth on landing day: 11 minutes |
Total distance traveled Earth to Mars (approximate): 491 million kilometers (305 million miles) |
Cost: Approximately $800 million total, consisting approximately of $625 million spacecraft |
operations and science processing |
Mars at a Glance |
! One of five planets known to ancients; Mars was Roman god of war, agriculture and the state |
! Yellowish brown to reddish color; occasionally the third brightest object in the night sky after the |
Moon and Venus |
Physical Characteristics |
! Average diameter 6,780 kilometers (4,212 miles); about half the size of Earth, but twice the size |
of Earth's Moon |
! Same land area as Earth, reminiscent of a rocky desert |
! Mass 1/10th of Earth's; gravity only 38 percent as strong as Earth's |
! Density 3.9 times greater than water (compared to Earth's 5.5 times greater than water) |
! No planet-wide magnetic field detected; only localized ancient remnant fields in various regions |
! Fourth planet from the Sun, the next beyond Earth |
! About 1.5 times farther from the Sun than Earth is |
! Orbit elliptical; distance from Sun varies from a minimum of 206.7 million kilometers (128.4 mil- |
lions miles) to a maximum of 249.2 million kilometers (154.8 million miles); average distance from |
the Sun 227.7 million kilometers (141.5 million miles) |
! Revolves around Sun once every 687 Earth days |
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