This ambitious effort will try to answer the two paramount riddles of the Red Planet. Where did all the water go? Did the water, and does it still harbor some form of life? The gullies and flood plains are evidence that water once flowed freely on the surface of Mars. All that remains today are traces of water vapor water in the atmosphere and a thin frosting of ice at the poles.

Mars is reluctant to give up it’s mysteries. It approaches Earth closely only every 26 months. The next opportunity for a Mars launch won’t come until 2005. Of the eight missions launched by the U.S., Russia and Japan over the last decade, only three have succeeded. The back-to-back losses of the Mars Polar Lander and the Mars Climate Orbiter in 1999, forced NASA to overhaul it’s Mars exploration program.

NASA’s twin rovers look like six-wheeled, golf-cart-sized monster trucks. They will be launched separately from Cape Canaveral in June and are scheduled to arrive in January. More robust versions of Sojourner, who captivated us in 1997, the rovers can travel up to 10-times the length of the football field Sojourner traveled in the 12-weeks it operated on the surface. Each rover has a panoramic camera three times better than anything ever landed on Mars. A microscope, an array of spectrometers to analyze the composition of soil and rocks, and a Rock Abrasion Tool, RAT for short, to scratch and chip away at rocks are other tools that the rover’s carry.

The first rover will attempt to land at Gusev Crater, about 15 degrees south of the martian equator. Scientists believe that the crater, which appears to be bisected by a large dry riverbed, once contained a lake. It will descend by parachute to within 100 feet of the ground. Cut loose and cushioned by a sphere of air bags, the rover will bounce across the surface for a half mile. After rolling to a stop, the airbags will open like the petals of a flower, releasing the rover to it’s work. The second rover will attempt to land at Meridiani Planum. Scientists have identified large outcroppings of gray hematite. Gray hematite is an iron oxide material usually formed in an environment containing liquid water.

Scientists, using the rovers’ cameras as their eyes, will choose targets for investigation and help plot the rovers’ path. However, the rovers will have to be smart enough to make some of their own decisions as they negotiate obstacles on the surface. Radio signals take 15 minutes to travel from Mars to Earth and back, so control can not be instantaneous. Scientists plan to spend most of the time between launch and landing practicing with identical rovers in a high-tech "sandbox" at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California.

The European mission, due to be launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Russia, is scheduled to arrive in December. The two part mission is much different from NASA’s. The Beagle 2 lander will not be able to roam about but has capabilities unlike other landers. Its target is the Isidis Planitia. A flat basin straddling ancient highlands, scientists believe that they might find fossil traces of ancient martian life. Upon landing, Beagle 2 will open like a pocket watch. It will deploy a robot arm and a Position-Adjustable Workbench (PAW for short) and go to work. Using three cameras, a set of spectrometers and environmental sensors, and a mechanical mole, it will look for evidence of a past life on Mars. The mole is a spring-loaded device that can burrow up to 3 feet down and bring up samples not sterilized by the radiation bombarding Mars’ surface.

The Mars Express Orbiter will remain aloft, using a ground-penetrating radar to "see" water up to three miles beneath the surface. There is evidence of Hydrogen beneath the polar regions, but scientists would like a more complete picture of underground Mars.

Yet another craft may join NASA’s Global Surveyor and Odyssey circling the planet. Japan launched the Nozomi (Japanese for Hope) spacecraft towards Mars in 1998. A trajectory error and a shortage of fuel forced them to take a longer path than planned. If all goes well, it should be in orbit around Mars in December.

Upon landing, the Beagle 2 is programmed to transmit the first music beamed from the surface of the Red Planet. It is a composition by the British pop group Blur.

Mike Toner, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 6/1/2003, pg. A11
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