Nasa has also announced details of plans to determine if Mars has or ever had the ingredients for life. A robotic science laboratory, being prepared for a November 25 launch, will land in August 2012 near a mountain in a crater on the planet most like Earth in the solar system.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2018477/Nasa-ordered-astronauts-asteroid-15-years.html#ixzz1T8Iuhs6r
The announcement came after the final curtain fell on Nasa's 30-year-old space shuttle programme with Thursday's landing of Atlantis at the Kennedy Space Center.
A detailed blueprint of Nasa's follow-on space exploration strategy is still pending and many Americans fear the demise of the shuttle program means the U.S. is relinquishing its leadership in space. President Barack Obama has said the objective is to build new spaceships that can travel beyond the shuttle's near-Earth orbit and eventually send astronauts to asteroids, Mars and other destinations in deep space.
At a Cape Canaveral briefing on Wednesday, Nasa officials will discuss preparations for the agency's upcoming Juno mission to Jupiter.
The unmanned spacecraft, set for launch in August, is expected to reach Jupiter's orbit in July 2016 and should further understanding of the solar system's beginnings by revealing the origin and evolution of its largest planet.
Among the most sophisticated probes in the offing, the plutonium-powered roving Mars Science Lab, nicknamed Curiosity, is being prepared for launch in November.
Twice as long and five times heavier than previous Mars rovers, Curiosity packs ten science instruments, including two for on-site chemical analysis of pulverized rock.
With it, scientists hope to learn if Mars has or ever had the organics necessary for life - at least life as it appears on Earth.
Scientists spent five years mulling 60 possible landing sites before narrowing the list to four: Eberwalde Crater, Mawrth Vallis, Holden Crater and - the winner - Gale Crater, which sports a stunning three mile-high mountain of rocks rising from the crater floor. That's about twice the height of the stack of rocks exposed in the Grand Canyon.
Analysis from Mars-orbiting spacecraft shows the base of Gale Crater's mountain includes both clays and sulphate salts, the only site among the four finalists with both types of materials available.
Scientists do not know how the mountain formed, but it may be the eroded remnant of sediment that once completely filled the crater.
Though Curiosity's mission is scheduled to last two years, scientists hope the rover will live past its warranty.
One of a pair of Mars rovers that arrived for concurrent three-month surveys in January 2004 is still working. Its twin succumbed to the harsh Martian environment only last year.
They returned evidence that Mars was once far wetter and warmer than the dry, cold desert that exists today.
I read stories relate to mars since school days..So finally its going to be at it send on august 2012.. I am waiting to see how mars looks in reality.
ReplyDeleteSample Analysis
Sample Analysis