Post on 16-Jan-2016
Mars Exploration Rovers
Spirit Opportunity
Mars Exploration Rovers
Launch: June 10, 2003 Landed on Mars:
January 4 Location: Gusev Crater Planned mission
duration: 90 days Mass: 185 kg Power: solar panels Mission concluded: May
24, 2011 (last transmission to Earth: March 22, 2010)
Launch: July 7, 2003 Landed on Mars:
January 25 Location: Meridiani
Planum Planned mission
duration: 90 days Mass: 185 kg Power: solar panels Mission concluded: N/A –
ongoing
Spirit, Gusev Crater
Opportunity, Meridiani Planum
MER Landing Site Locations
Instruments Cameras:
Panoramic Camera (Pancam) Microscopic Imager (MI) Hazard Cameras (Hazcams) Navigation Cameras (Navcams)
Spectrometers: Miniature Thermal Emission
Spectrometer (Mini-TES) Mössbauer Spectrometer (MB) Alpha Particle X-Ray
Spectrometer (APXS)
Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT)
Magnet Array
MER Imagery and Data
How would you rate the quality of the images?What observations can you make?How would you interpret these observations?What could you say about Mars from these images?Can you use previous mission data to make a generalization?What can you say we know about Mars at this point? How
certain are you?What questions would you ask about Mars?How would you attempt to answer these questions?What are limitations to this type of mission
(rover/instruments)?
What we learned about Mars from MER
There are several minerals that form in water at both landing sites
Bedrock exists and is accessible
Not all of Mars is the same as the Viking and Pathfinder landing sites (barren plains with rocks strewn everywhere)
Hills, bedrock, plains of sand, and large and small craters can all be explored by a MER-sized rover
The RAT is a useful tool for revealing the insides of rocks
A stuck wheel can also be a useful tool for revealing what is under the surface
The Earth is visible from the surface of Mars
Ground truth of orbital observations – hematite at Meridiani Planum
A rover designed for a 90-day mission may last many years