Russian Mars Program

Astronauts walked on the surface of Mars in February, nearly a year into a mission to Mars. Unfortunately, it's only a simulation, designed to test what would happen on a real flight to Mars. The point of this project is to simulate a manned mission to Mars, many world class scientists are involved in this program. The international team of researchers are in a  locked in a windowless capsule for about a year and a half, which is the time it takes to travel to Mars. Starting in June of last year, the all-male crew of six -- three from Russia, one from France, one from Italy and one from China -- began spending 520 days in the cramped and claustrophobic conditions of a special facility in Moscow, following a strict program of exercise and diet. They are still developing the program and it does look promising for the future.

United States' Rover

The NASA space program launched twin rovers toward Mars on June 10 and July 7, 2003, in search of answers about the history of water on Mars. They landed on Mars January 3 and January 24 PST, 2004 (January 4 and January 25 UTC, 2004). The rovers are a long term program that will help expand the current understanding that humans have about Mars. The main purpose that the rovers serve is to find as many rocks and soil samples that show past water activity on Mars. The rovers were sent to opposite sides of Mars, to study areas that are assumed to have had contact with water.

Rover Tools:

  
"These are the primary science instruments carried by the rovers:

• Panoramic Camera (Pancam): for determining the mineralogy, texture, and structure of the local terrain.
  
• Miniature Thermal Emission Spectrometer (Mini-TES): for identifying promising rocks and soils for closer examination and for determining the processes that formed Martian rocks. The instrument is designed to look skyward to provide temperature profiles of the Martian atmosphere.
  
• Mössbauer Spectrometer (MB): for close-up investigations of the mineralogy of iron-bearing rocks and soils.
  
• Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometer (APXS): for close-up analysis of the abundances of elements that make up rocks and soils.
  
• Magnets: for collecting magnetic dust particles. The Mössbauer Spectrometer and the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer are designed to analyze the particles collected and help determine the ratio of magnetic particles to non-magnetic particles. They can also analyze the composition of magnetic minerals in airborne dust and rocks that have been ground by the Rock Abrasion Tool.
  
• Microscopic Imager (MI): for obtaining close-up, high-resolution images of rocks and soils.
  
• Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT): for removing dusty and weathered rock surfaces and exposing fresh material for examination by instruments onboard. "

Why I Chose to Blog About Mars

The reason why I chose to blog about Mars is because I've always been fascinated with the solar system and the big questions that we have about it. I enjoy the exploration, and the things we learn about other planets by sending rovers and other tools over to them. We seem to learn a lot, especially since we thought there was no life on any other planets, and we also thought that life couldn't even be sustained outside of Earth. Yet, as human technology develops, there is no way to tell how far we can take this, and its interesting to see how much we will get done in the next few years, considering how much we got done in the last 50.