Opportunity Rockets Toward Mars
Explanation:
Next stop:
Mars.
Two months ago, the second of
two missions to Mars
was launched from
Cape Canaveral,
Florida,
USA above a
Boeing
Delta II rocket.
The
Mars Exploration Rover dubbed Opportunity is expected to arrive
at the red planet this coming January.
Pictured above, an attached
RocketCam (TM) captures Opportunity
separating from lower booster stages and rocketing off toward
Mars.
Upon
arriving,
parachutes will deploy to slow the spacecraft and surrounding
airbags will inflate.
The balloon-like package will then bounce around the
surface a dozen times or more before coming to a stop.
The airbags will then deflate, the
spacecraft will right
itself,
and the Opportunity rover will prepare to roll onto Mars.
A first rover named Spirit was
successfully launched
on June 10 and will arrive at Mars a few weeks earlier.
The
robots Spirit and Opportunity are expected to cover as much as
40 metres per day, much more than
Sojourner,
their 1997 predecessor.
Spirit and Opportunity will search for evidence of
ancient Martian water,
from which implications might be drawn about the possibility of
ancient Martian life.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
