Rover mission headed to Mars in 2003
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Mars 2003 rover, depicted here in artist's rendering, would travel as far in a day as Sojourner did in its lifetime
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From staff reports
(CNN) -- NASA plans to send a large rover to Mars in three
years, expanding the
search for water on the red planet, the space agency
announced Thursday.
In selecting the mobile mission over a proposed orbiter
satellite, officials at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said they also were studying the possibility of dispatching a
second rover.
The proposed mechanical martian explorer, a powerful mobile laboratory, would be similar to
the 1997 Mars Pathfinder Sojourner rover, the agency said. Like that machine,
the 2003 rover would rely on an airbag cocoon to land with a
drop, bounce and roll.
But with anticipated greater mobility and scientific abilities, the new
generation rover should embark on the longest expedition
across the red planet.
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The new robotic explorer is supposed to capable of traveling up to 110
yards (100 meters) each 24-hour, 37-minute martian day -- the
same distance the miniature Sojourner rover trekked during
its three-month trip.
The Pathfinder mission included a scientific lander as well
as Sojourner. But the 2003 mission's hardware will consist exclusively
of the super rover, a de facto mobile scientific lander, NASA
said.
After a planned landing on Mars in January 2004, the 300-pound (136-kilogram)
rover is expected to explore the surface until at least
April. Likely landing sites include a former lakebed or
channel deposit, which scientists think once contained water.
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NASA hopes to take advantage of a favorable Earth-Mars alignment in 2003 to send a new rover to the red planet
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To select a site, NASA in large part will rely on data from
the Mars Global Surveyor, which has orbited the red planet since 1997. Last month planetary scientists studying images from the satellite announced they
had found strong evidence of liquid water near the martian
surface in the recent geologic past.
NASA is
considering expanding the 2003 rover mission, said Ed Weiler, the space agency's second in command.
"We want to look into what could be an amazing opportunity
by sending two such rovers to two very different locations,"
he said in a statement.
The agency, which postponed an official decision since Monday,
selected the rover mission over a scientific satellite that
would have featured a camera with a much higher resolution
than the Mars Global Surveyor.
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