The Mars Exploration Rover Mission - Case Study Example

KEY SPACE MISSION By Name Course Instructor Institution City/State Date The Mars Exploration Rover Mission (Spirit and Opportunity Rovers) 1Introduction The Mars Exploration Rover program, which included the Spirit and Opportunity rovers is arguably the most prosperous mission ever sent to Mars. In 2003, the two rovers were separately launched to Mars and landed securely a number of months afterwards. Interestingly, they were deduced to last almost three months on the Mars surface, but Spirit rover survived until 2011, while Opportunity is still operating well. Spirit and Opportunity utilised a highly-sophisticated technology created by the Mars Pathfinder mission, wherein they utilised an airbag system to ensure the rovers’ landing on the surface of Mars was gently (Jankvist and Toldbod 2007, 8). They as well utilized the rover technology, which was initially employed to the Sojourner rover, but rather than operating from a base, the two rovers were designed to be totally autonomous, and be in a position to directly communicate back to Earth. Importantly, the objective of the Mars Exploration Rover mission (MER) was to explore the Mars surface for proof of water. According to NASA, Spirit touched down on the enormous Mars’ Gusev Crater, an area that resembled the ancient lake on Mars, and on the other hand, Opportunity landed in the other side of the Mars Known as Meridiani Planum (Ai-Chang, et al. 2004, 9). The essay seeks to explore The Mars Exploration Rover mission (Spirit and Opportunity rovers) by describing the challenges it had to overcome and the mission’s achievements. 2Discussion The mission's scientific purpose according to was to look for and typify a broad scope of soils and rocks that hold evidences to past activity of water on Mars. Basically, the MER mission is part of Mars Exploration Program carried out by NASA, which consists of three earlier successful landers: the 1997 Mars Pathfinder probe and the 1976 Viking program landers. According to Jankvist and Toldbod (2007, 9), the scientific objectives of the MER mission included: Searching for and setting apart a range of soils as well as rocks that hold evidences to past r activity of water. Particularly, samples required comprised those that have minerals deposited by water-based activities like sedimentary cementation, evaporation, or precipitation. Another objective was to establish the composition and distribution of soils, rocks, and minerals neighboring the landing locations. Additionally, the mission was intended to find out what geologic processes have formed the local topography and impacted the chemistry. These processes according to Ai-Chang et al. (2004, 10) could consist of hydrothermal mechanisms, volcanism, sedimentation, and wind or water erosion. Besides that, additional objectives of MER mission included carrying out validation as well as calibration of surface observations performed by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) devices. This assisted in determining the precision and efficiency of diverse instruments in the orbit meant to survey Martian geology. Looking for iron-containing minerals, as well as to recognize and compute relative amounts of certain types of mineral that held water or were created in water, like iron-bearing carbonates was also an objective of MER mission. Other less crucial objectives include: characterizing the textures and mineralogy of soils as well as rocks to establish the processes that formed them; to look for geographical evidence to the ecological conditions that subsisted when liquid water was available; and finally to examine whether those surroundings were favorable to human existence. 3In the past two decades, NASA has carried out a number of missions to find out if Mars has ever supported life. The exploration started with finding out whether the Martian environment could support life. Life, as everyone comprehend it, needs water, therefore the history of Mars water is vital in establishing whether the Martian environment is favorable to human life (Wales, Shalin and Bass 2007, 94). Even though the Mars Exploration Rovers lacked the ability to directly detect life, they two rovers provided essential information on the environment habitability in the history of the planet; therefore, the Mars Exploration Rovers successes are remarkable. Both Spirit and Opportunity rover founded ancient environments that were habitable, and where liquid water has persisted. Evidence for ancient water has been established by the two rovers during their navigations, and this proves in the past the Mars was akin to Earth, having at least kilometre-scale water bodies, a thicker atmosphere, as well as warmer temperatures. Furthermore, with sources of hydrothermal energy discovered in a number of locations, such discoveries imply that the Mars was a habitable environment at a time when human existence first surfaced on planet Earth. Astonishingly, regardless of such discoveries, the hundreds of thousands of images taken, the tens of kilometers distances covered, the years of operation; much exploration is still in front. 4Even though many years have passed, Opportunity rover has managed to take us back to the most former era on Mars, back to the days when Mars was wet and warm, and fit for human habitation. This epoch, widely acknowledged as the Noachian epoch, is where according to Niles et al. (2013, 304) we could come across hints as to whether Mars on one occasion supported life. The Mars Exploration Rover mission has been one of the most difficult things human race can accomplish, and it took a remarkable team to handle the challenges that Spirit and Opportunity have endured. However, this achievement exhibits what inspired, devoted, highly skilled individuals can achieve, and it addresses the inventiveness as well as resourcefulness of modern civilization. Actually, Spirit and Opportunity were by no means designed for the exploration they have carried out; instead they were planned for 1 kilometer of odometry undertaking for just three months of duration and during Martian summer. However, in reality, Spirit and Opportunity climbed distant hills, crossed Great Plains, and even went down into deep craters as well as endured dark, cold winters as well as planet-circling dust storms. Still, with such setbacks and hardship, the two rovers kept discovering and exploring. Fig 1: Mars Rover. Image credit: NASA/JPL However, with all such achievement, there have been challenges, as there are at all times. Actuators and components stopped working; for instance, the right front wheel of Spirit broke down after only two years of operation while the robotic arm of opportunity has turn out to be arthritic. Besides that, there have been extremely tough days, particularly when a rover turned out to be embedded or when hit by dust storms. This challenges lead to the complete failure of Spirit, which after scores of years of successful exploration, became stuck, and its internal electronics failed due to extreme climatic conditions. Ultimately, the world of astronomy will have to say farewell to Opportunity, which together with Spirit have become the world’s treasured friends, reminding the world that the machines, enormously akin to us, are also mortal. Besides the vast scientific discoveries, the world has come to love these rovers since they were invested with human qualities. The two rovers are submissive, intellectual, fearless, mischievous endearing, and achievers; given that they conveyed the world’s dreams, highest aspirations, and hopes to the alien world. 5The MER spacecraft utilised an X band radio wavelength with high-frequency to communicate, and which according to Wales, Shalin and Bass (2007, 79) permitted for smaller antennas as well as less power as compared to scores of previous craft, which utilised S band. In this regard, navigators transmitted commands by means of two antennas on the cruise stage: a cruise medium-gain antenna mounted in the outer ring and a cruise low-gain antenna in the inner ring. For this reason, the low-gain antenna was utilised near to the Earth, and according to Jankvist and Toldbod (2007, 13) it is omni-directional, therefore the power of transmission that got to Earth fell hastier with growing distance. When the spacecraft was closer to Mars, the Earth as well as Sun moved nearer in the sky as seen from the craft, therefore smaller amount of energy got to Earth. Afterwards, the spacecraft alternated to the medium-gain antenna, which Niles et al. (2013, 317) posit that it directed the similar transmission energy amount into a more stringent beam toward Earth. Besides that, the craft was spin-stabilized during flight, and sporadic updates made the antennas point toward Earth. The aeroshell on the other hand, retained a defensive covering for the lander during the journey to Mars, and alongside the rover as well as the lander, it had the entry vehicle. The aeroshell key objective was to defend the rover as well as lander inside it from the extreme entry heat into the thin atmosphere of Martian.. Conclusion In conclusion, it has been argued that in only a few months after landing on the surface of Mars, both Spirit and Opportunity accomplished their mission purposes, and found out clues that in the past there were enormous quantities of water on the Mars surface. Spirit found some clues that water had acted on a Humphrey (rock), whilst Opportunity discovered sedimentary rock layers that would have been created by water deposits. Spirit and opportunity continued to discover extra clues for water presence in Mars, and during their mission, both rovers traveled a number of kilometers. For instance, Opportunity crawled into an enormous crater and Spirit climbed a small mountain to sample the walls for clues of water in the past. Bibliography Ai-Chang, Mitchell, Lihn Bresina, Len Charest, Adam Chase, and et al. 2004. "MAPGEN: Mixed-initiative planning and scheduling for the Mars Exploration Rover mission." IEEE Intelligent Systems 19(1): 8-12. Jankvist, Uffe Thomas, and Bjorn Toldbod. 2007. "The Hidden Mathematics of the Mars Exploration Rover Mission." Mathematical Intelligencer 29(1): 8-15. Niles, Paul B, David C Catling, Gilles Berger, Eric Chassefiere, Bethany L Ehlmann, and et al. 2013. "Geochemistry of Carbonates on Mars: Implications for Climate History and Nature of Aqueous Environments." Space Science Reviews 174(1-4): 301-328. Wales, Roxana C, Valerie L Shalin, and Deborah S Bass. 2007. "Requesting Distant Robotic Action: An Ontology for Naming and Action Identification for Planning on the Mars Exploration Rover Mission." Journal of the Association for Information Systems 8(2): 75-81,83-85,87-88,92-104. Read More

Other less crucial objectives include: characterizing the textures and mineralogy of soils as well as rocks to establish the processes that formed them; to look for geographical evidence to the ecological conditions that subsisted when liquid water was available; and finally to examine whether those surroundings were favorable to human existence. 3In the past two decades, NASA has carried out a number of missions to find out if Mars has ever supported life. The exploration started with finding out whether the Martian environment could support life.

Life, as everyone comprehend it, needs water, therefore the history of Mars water is vital in establishing whether the Martian environment is favorable to human life (Wales, Shalin and Bass 2007, 94). Even though the Mars Exploration Rovers lacked the ability to directly detect life, they two rovers provided essential information on the environment habitability in the history of the planet; therefore, the Mars Exploration Rovers successes are remarkable. Both Spirit and Opportunity rover founded ancient environments that were habitable, and where liquid water has persisted.

Evidence for ancient water has been established by the two rovers during their navigations, and this proves in the past the Mars was akin to Earth, having at least kilometre-scale water bodies, a thicker atmosphere, as well as warmer temperatures. Furthermore, with sources of hydrothermal energy discovered in a number of locations, such discoveries imply that the Mars was a habitable environment at a time when human existence first surfaced on planet Earth. Astonishingly, regardless of such discoveries, the hundreds of thousands of images taken, the tens of kilometers distances covered, the years of operation; much exploration is still in front.

4Even though many years have passed, Opportunity rover has managed to take us back to the most former era on Mars, back to the days when Mars was wet and warm, and fit for human habitation. This epoch, widely acknowledged as the Noachian epoch, is where according to Niles et al. (2013, 304) we could come across hints as to whether Mars on one occasion supported life. The Mars Exploration Rover mission has been one of the most difficult things human race can accomplish, and it took a remarkable team to handle the challenges that Spirit and Opportunity have endured.

However, this achievement exhibits what inspired, devoted, highly skilled individuals can achieve, and it addresses the inventiveness as well as resourcefulness of modern civilization. Actually, Spirit and Opportunity were by no means designed for the exploration they have carried out; instead they were planned for 1 kilometer of odometry undertaking for just three months of duration and during Martian summer. However, in reality, Spirit and Opportunity climbed distant hills, crossed Great Plains, and even went down into deep craters as well as endured dark, cold winters as well as planet-circling dust storms.

Still, with such setbacks and hardship, the two rovers kept discovering and exploring. Fig 1: Mars Rover. Image credit: NASA/JPL However, with all such achievement, there have been challenges, as there are at all times. Actuators and components stopped working; for instance, the right front wheel of Spirit broke down after only two years of operation while the robotic arm of opportunity has turn out to be arthritic. Besides that, there have been extremely tough days, particularly when a rover turned out to be embedded or when hit by dust storms.

This challenges lead to the complete failure of Spirit, which after scores of years of successful exploration, became stuck, and its internal electronics failed due to extreme climatic conditions. Ultimately, the world of astronomy will have to say farewell to Opportunity, which together with Spirit have become the world’s treasured friends, reminding the world that the machines, enormously akin to us, are also mortal. Besides the vast scientific discoveries, the world has come to love these rovers since they were invested with human qualities.

Read More