Page 62 - (DK) Eyewitness - Mars

Future exploration Video camera Sensors in wings

in tail

In coming years, a
NASA Mars orbiter will release
a small plane to make a low-level MARS AIRPLANE
flight over the southern highlands. Plans are Spectrometers in nose This unmanned aircraft, named
“Eagle,” is part of a program
in the works for a group of European organizations known as ARES—Aerial
and NASA to team up to launch the NetLander mission. In 2008, Regional-scale Environment
Survey of Mars. Ares is the
NASA’s Phoenix lander will settle down on the North Polar region. The Greek name for Mars. After
phoenix is a mythical bird that rises from the ashes—in this case from release from an orbiter, the
aircraft will fly at a height of
the 1999 loss of Mars Polar Lander. International space agencies are also nearly one mile (1.5 km),
discussing putting up a communications satellite, which their missions powered by a rocket engine. It
will follow a 425-mile (680 km)
all could share. On drawing boards, too, are plans for possible manned course over the southern
flights to Mars and the establishment of permanent bases. NASA may highlands as its science
instruments send back data. Its
use nuclear power for future Mars bases and rovers, which would give wingspan is about 20 feet (6 m).
equipment a longer operating life than do solar arrays and batteries.

Antenna
Mast for camera
and instruments
Solar panel unfolded

PHOENIX
The Phoenix Lander, planned to reach Mars in 2008,
will be the first in a line of smaller, less expensive
“scout” missions in NASA’s Mars Exploration
NETLANDER ON MARS Program. It will be the first lander to return data
The NetLander mission will investigate the directly from a polar region. Phoenix Lander was
Martian interior and atmosphere. NetLander’s ready to go in 2001, but its program was canceled
spacecraft carries four separate landers, one after the loss of Mars Polar Lander.
of which is shown in this artist’s image. They
will each settle down on different regions
of Mars. Each lander has its own science
instruments for studying atmosphere,
subsurface features, and magnetic fields.

Satellite dish antenna

Oversize wheels
for stability
LABORATORY ON WHEELS
NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory
drives through a Martian canyon
in this artist’s concept of a future
rover. Scheduled for arrival in
2010, the Mars Science
Laboratory will analyze rock and
soil samples. NASA is
considering nuclear energy for
powering the laboratory, which
will be far more advanced than
previous rovers.

0