NASA HOPES TO BEAT ODDS ON MARS ROVER.Byline: Marcia Dunn Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. The home planet is 1-1 launching spacecraft to Mars this season, so NASA NASA: see National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA in full National Aeronautics and Space Administration Independent U.S. scientists are extra edgy as they await Monday's planned launch of probe No. 3. ``One near-miss, one miss and now it's our turn,'' said Curtis Cleven, launch operations manager See datacenter manager. for Mars Pathfinder, which holds the first-ever Martian rover. ``We're all a little nervous. At least I am.'' The near-miss was the failure of a solar wing to properly extend on NASA's Global Surveyor, launched Nov. 7 and en route to the Red Planet. Engineers insist they can work around the problem. The complete miss was the Russian probe that failed shortly after liftoff and fell from orbit two weeks ago, bringing worries that plutonium on board might contaminate con·tam·i·nate v. 1. To make impure or unclean by contact or mixture. 2. To expose to or permeate with radioactivity. con·tam·i·nant n. Earth upon re-entry RE-ENTRY, estates. The resuming or retaking possession of land which the party lately had. 2. Ground rent deeds and leases frequently contain a clause authorizing the landlord to reenter on the non-payment of rent, or the breach of some covenant, when the . The Pathfinder will be carrying plutonium, but less than one-third of an ounce. It's just enough to keep the rover warm as it roams the frosty Martian surface. Pathfinder will be the last spacecraft sent to Mars until late 1998 at the earliest. Spaceflight to Mars is considered feasible only every two years because of the alignment between the two planets Two Planets (in original German Auf zwei Planeten - lit. "On Two Planets") is the name of a novel by Kurd Lasswitz, published in 1897. Written before the exploration of the North Pole, it tells the story of a fictitious group of explorers who find a Martian base. . After Pathfinder, NASA plans to send eight more spacecraft to Mars over the next decade in hopes of determining if life ever existed there. The goal is a robotic mission to scoop up Verb 1. scoop up - take out or up with or as if with a scoop; "scoop the sugar out of the container" lift out, scoop, scoop out, take up remove, take away, withdraw, take - remove something concrete, as by lifting, pushing, or taking off, or remove something Martian dirt and rocks for return to Earth. The Russian Space Agency, doubtful it can afford any more Mars missions of its own, likely will try to join the NASA venture. The failed Russian effort was far more ambitious than either Global Surveyor or Pathfinder. The doomed spacecraft held an orbiter, two landers and two soil-penetrating probes that would have slammed into the Martian surface at 200 mph and drilled down 20 feet. Two U.S. experiments were on board. ``The U.S. effort is going on, but this is a real blow to us to lose this,'' Cleven said. Russian space officials still aren't sure - or aren't saying - why the spacecraft never made it out of orbit and plunged through the atmosphere shortly after its Nov. 16 launch. It carried 9-1/2 ounces of plutonium-238 designed to survive ``a direct shot from a cannon,'' said Igor Shevalyov, a spokesman for the Lavochkin Institute, which designed the spacecraft. Anything surviving the searing sear 1 v. seared, sear·ing, sears v.tr. 1. To char, scorch, or burn the surface of with or as if with a hot instrument. See Synonyms at burn1. 2. heat of re-entry would have fallen in the Pacific Ocean or possibly Chile or Bolivia, the U.S. Space Command said Friday. Russian space officials insist any remains ended up in the Pacific. On Pathfinder, each of the three minuscule plutonium-238 cells is encased en·case tr.v. en·cased, en·cas·ing, en·cas·es To enclose in or as if in a case. en·case  ment n. in noncorrosive, heat-resistant metal and graphite. The radioactive levels are low; nonetheless, two water-activated beacons are attached to the rocket in case the whole thing ends up back on Earth. Mars has been a risky business from the start. Of 19 U.S. and Russian missions to Mars since 1962, only six have succeeded, all of them American - and none since the Viking landings in 1976. ``You always have to stay humble in this business,'' said Tony Spear, mission director for Pathfinder. ``It is a risky business and there is this additional risk associated with landing'' on Mars. The $196 million Pathfinder will aim for an ancient flood plain loaded with rocks some 500 miles from where Viking 1 plopped down. It is due there July 4, 1997, two months before the slower Global Surveyor arrives at Mars to orbit the planet. Pathfinder is supposed to parachute down through the Martian atmosphere. Then the parachute will pop off and the spacecraft, cushioned by large air bags, will tumble onto the surface. Once Pathfinder stops bouncing, the air bags will deflate (file format, compression) deflate - A compression standard derived from LZ77; it is reportedly used in zip, gzip, PKZIP, and png, among others. Unlike LZW, deflate compression does not use patented compression algorithms. , the petals of the spacecraft will unfold and the six-wheeled, 23-pound rover will venture out to begin its geological survey. The rover will analyze the composition of Mars rocks and help scientists determine whether the materials might once have been conducive to life. By coincidence, the rocks in this area are about the same age as the 4-billion-year-old Mars meteorite in which NASA scientists found supposed evidence of primitive life in August. CAPTION(S): Photo/Box Photo/Box: THE SEARCH FOR LIFE ON MARS Scientists have long speculated about the possibility of life on Mars owing to the planet's proximity and similarity to Earth. It remains an open question whether life exists on Mars now, or existed there in the past. Associated Press |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion