1995-Pathfinder+to+Mars

The Mars Pathfinder mission was first started in 1992, and was originally designed as a first in the network of landers, known as MESUR (mars environment survey). the rovers name is "Sojourner" after the civil war-era abolitionist Sojourner Truth.it was controlled by a earth base operator.The Mars pathfinder was launched on December 4,1996. It took the pathfinder 7 months to finally land on Mars. The date of the landing was July 4, 1997. When the pathfinder went into the Martian atmosphere it took 4 minutes to land on the surface. This encounter was broadcasted on CNN for the world to see. The pathfinder took several pictures of the Mars surface and the named the rock formations after cartoon characters, for example Scooby Doo, Yogi, and Mermaid. The rover was only designed to last a week and the lander a month, but they both lasted over three months. The lander's battery died on September 27, 1997. The rover was still working at the time and is designed to circle the lander trying to establish communications. The pathfinder back over 2.6 billion bits of data. The rover performed 20 chemical analysts of rocks and soil ("Mars pathfinder," ).

The pathfinders trip to Mars had certainly made its mark on history. NASA is dedicated to send missions to Mars every Earth-Mars opportunity every 22 months. The most recent rover, Curiosity, was sent out on November 26,2011 at 7:02 A.M. this new rover is twice as long and over three times as heavy as the Mars Exploration rovers Spirit and Opportunity that were sent out previously. The mars science laboratory will collect a bunch of rock samples and analyze them to see if mars looked different in the past and to see if it contained life form and or if it is suitable for humans to inhabit there. What makes a planet inhabitable are the chemicals, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur and oxygen. This rover was a international project. Russia contributed a neutron- base hydrogen detector that helps locate water. Spain provided a meteorological package while Canada provided a specter meter that shows how light bends ("Mars exploration").





[|Mars Pathfinder]

[|Mars Exploration Program]