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In 2003, two powerful new Mars rovers will beon their way to the red planet. With far greatermobility than the 1997 Mars Pathfinder rover, theserobotic explorers will be able to trek up to 100meters (about 110 yards) across the surface eachMartian day. Each Mars 2003 rover will carry a sophisticated set of instruments that will allow it tosearch for evidence of liquid water that may havebeen present in the planet's past. The rovers will beidentical to each other, butwill land at differentregions of Mars.

Mission OverviewBoth rovers are

planned for launch fromCape Canaveral, Florida,

one on June 3, 2003, andthe second on June 27.The first should reachMars January 4, 2004, theother on February 25.The landing for each willresemble that of thePathfinder spacecraft. Aparachute will deploy to slow the spacecraft andairbags will inflate to cushion the landing. Uponreaching the surface, the spacecraft will bounce about

a dozen times, and could roll as far as one kilometer(0.6 mile). When it stops, the airbags will deflateand retract and the petals will open up, bringing thelander to an upright position and revealing the rover.

The landed portion of the Mars ExplorationRover mission features a design dramatically differ-ent from Mars Pathfinder's. Where Pathfinder hadscientific instruments on both the lander and thesmall Sojourner rover, these larger rovers will carry

all their instruments with them. Immediately afterlanding, the rover will begin reconnaissance of thelanding site by taking a 360-degree visible color andinfrared image panorama. It will then leave the petalstructure behind, driving off to begin its exploration.

Using images and spectra taken daily from therovers, scientists will command the vehicle to go torock and soil targets of interest and evaluate their

composition and their tex-ture at microscopic scales.Initial targets may be closeto the landing sites, butlater targets can be farafield: These explorationrovers will be able to trav-el almost as far in one

Martian day as theSojourner rover did overits entire lifetime.

Rocks and soils willbe analyzed with a set of five instruments on eachrover, and a special tool

called the rock abrasion tool, or RAT, will be usedto expose fresh rock surfaces for study. Each roverhas a mass of nearly 150 kilograms (about 300

pounds) and has a range of up to 100 meters (about110 yards) per sol, or Martian day. Surface opera-tions will last for at least 90 sols, extending to lateApril 2004, but could continue longer, depending onthe health of the vehicles.

Science GoalsThe mission seeks to determine history of cli-

mate and water at a two sites on Mars where condi-tions may once have been favorable to life. The sites

Mars Exploration Rover

NASA FactsNational Aeronautics andSpace Administration

Jet Propulsion LaboratoryCalifornia Institute of TechnologyPasadena, CA 91109

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will be chosen by about a year before launch, on thebasis of intensive study of orbital data collected bythe Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft and other mis-sions. Selection criteria will include clear evidence of

ancient water, as indicated either by minerals thatform under wet conditions or landscapes apparentlyshaped by water. Possibilities include formerlakebeds or hydrothermal deposits. The rovers'instruments will be used to read the geologic recordat the sites, and to evaluate how suitable the past con-ditions would have been for life.

Science InstrumentsEach rover will carry five scientific instruments

and an abrasion tool: a Panoramic Camera provided

by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena,Calif.; a Miniature Thermal Emission Spectrometerfrom Arizona State University, Tempe, Ariz.; a Mssbauer Spectrometer from the JohannesGutenberg University, Mainz, Germany; an Alpha-Proton X-ray Spectrometer from Max PlanckInstitute for Chemistry, also in Mainz, Germany; anda Microscopic Imager from JPL. The Rock AbrasionTool provided by Honeybee Robotics, New York,

N.Y., will grind away the outer surfaces of rocks,which may be dusty and weathered, allowing the sci-ence instruments to determine the nature of rock inte-riors. The payload also includes magnetic targets pro-vided by Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen,Denmark. The spectrometers, microscopic imagerand abrasion tool will be deployed on a robotic arm.

l Panoramic Camera: Providing the GeologicContext

This instrument will be used to reveal the terrainaround the rover, searching for evidence of the actionof liquid water. It will be used to help select the mostpromising rock and soil targets for more intensivestudy, and to pick new regions for the rover toexplore. Its resolution is over three times better thanthat of the cameras carried on the Mars Pathfinderlander.

l Miniature Thermal Emission Spectrometer: Identifying Minerals at the Site

This instrument will view the scene around therover in the infrared, determining types and abun-

dance of many different kinds of minerals. A particu-lar goal will be to search for distinctive minerals thatare formed by the action of water. Scanning to buildup a panoramic image, it will also be used in tandem

with the Panoramic Camera to select science targetsand to pick new areas to explore.

l Mssbauer Spectrometer: Identifying Iron- Bearing Minerals

This instrument will be placed against rock andsoil targets by an arm on the rover. It will identifyany minerals that contain iron, help to evaluate whatrole water played in the formation of these minerals,and help to discern the extent to which rocks havebeen weathered.

l Alpha Proton X-Ray Spectrometer: Determining the Composition of Rocks

This instrument is an improved version of theinstrument used by Pathfinder's Sojourner rover. Itmeasures the concentrations of most major elements,allowing investigation of how rocks and soils formedand how they have been altered over time.

l The Microscopic Imager: Looking at Fine-scaleFeatures

This instrument will reveal fine-scale appearanceof rocks and soils, which can provide essential cluesto how those rocks and soils were formed. Forinstance, the size and angularity of grains in water-lain sediments can reveal how they were transportedand deposited.

Project/Program ManagementThe Mars Exploration Rover is managed for

NASA by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena,Calif. At NASA Headquarters, David Lavery is theprogram executive and Dr. Catherine Weitz is theprogram scientist. At JPL, Peter Theisinger is theproject manager and Dr. Joy Crisp is the project sci-entist. The principal investigator for the science pay-load is Dr. Steve Squyres from Cornell University,Ithaca, N.Y.

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