Mars - Lander and Rover Images

Exploration of Mars
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exploration_of_Mars


Viking Lander
The Viking program consisted of a pair of American space probes sent to Mars, Viking 1 and Viking 2. Each spacecraft was composed of two main parts, an orbiter designed to photograph the surface of Mars from orbit, and a lander designed to study the planet from the surface. The orbiters also served as communication relays for the landers once they touched down.

It was the most expensive and ambitious mission ever sent to Mars, with a total cost of roughly US$1 billion.[1] It was highly successful and formed most of the database of information about Mars until the late 1990s and early 2000s. The Viking program grew from NASA's earlier, and more ambitious Voyager Mars program, which was not related to the successful Voyager deep space probes of the late 1970s. Viking 1 was launched on August 20, 1975, and the second craft, Viking 2, was launched on September 9, 1975, both riding atop Titan III-E rockets with Centaur upper stages.

After orbiting Mars and returning images used for landing site selection, the orbiter and lander detached and the lander entered the Martian atmosphere and soft-landed at the selected site. The orbiters continued imaging and performing other scientific operations from orbit while the landers deployed instruments on the surface. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viking_program

Viking Mission to Mars
http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/viking.html
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/viking/
Google Search Results
Viking 1 Images
Viking 2 Images




Phoenix Lander
Phoenix was a robotic spacecraft on a space exploration mission on Mars under the Mars Scout Program. The Phoenix lander descended on Mars on May 25, 2008. Mission scientists used instruments aboard the lander to search for environments suitable for microbial life on Mars, and to research the history of water there.

Phoenix is NASA's sixth successful landing out of seven attempts and is the most recent spacecraft to land successfully on Mars as well as the first successful landing in a Martian polar region. The lander completed its mission in August 2008, and made a last brief communication with Earth on November 2 as available solar power dropped with the Martian winter. The mission was declared concluded on November 10, 2008, after engineers were unable to re-contact the craft.

After unsuccessful attempts to contact the lander by the Mars Odyssey orbiter up to and past the Martian summer solstice on May 12, 2010, JPL declared the lander to be dead. Like the two Mars Exploration Rovers, the program was considered a success because it exceeded its planned mission length by several months. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_%28spacecraft%29

NASA - Phoenix
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/main/index.html
Phoenix Mars Mission
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/phoenix/main.php
Google Search Results
Phoenix Lander Images




Sojourner Rover - Mars Pathfinder
The Mars Pathfinder (MESUR Pathfinder[1]), later renamed the Carl Sagan Memorial Station, is an American spacecraft that landed the first roving probe deployed on another planet. It consisted of a lander and a lightweight (10.6 kilograms/23 pounds) wheeled robotic rover named Sojourner.[2]

Launched on December 4, 1996 by NASA aboard a Delta II booster a month after the Mars Global Surveyor was launched, it landed on July 4, 1997 on Mars' Ares Vallis, in a region called Chryse Planitia in the Oxia Palus quadrangle. The lander then opened, exposing the rover which conducted many experiments on the Martian surface.

The mission carried a series of scientific instruments to analyze the Martian atmosphere, climate, geology and the composition of its rocks and soil. It was the second project from NASA's Discovery Program, which promotes the use of low-cost spacecraft and frequent launches under the motto "cheaper, faster and better" promoted by the then administrator, Daniel Goldin. The mission was directed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a division of the California Institute of Technology, responsible for NASA's Mars Exploration Program. The project manager was JPL's Tony Spear.

This mission, besides being the first of a series of missions to Mars that included rovers (robotic exploration vehicles), was the most important since the Vikings landed on the red planet in 1976. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sojourner_%28rover%29

Mars Pathfinder
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mars-pathfinder/
Directory of Pathfinder Images
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/MPF/mpf/image-arc.html
Google Search Results
Sojourner Rover Images





Mars Exploration Rovers
NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Mission (MER) is an ongoing robotic space mission involving two rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, exploring the planet Mars. It began in 2003 with the sending of the two rovers — MER-A Spirit and MER-B Opportunity — to explore the Martian surface and geology.

The mission's scientific objective was to search for and characterize a wide range of rocks and soils that hold clues to past water activity on Mars. The mission is part of NASA's Mars Exploration Program, which includes three previous successful landers: the two Viking program landers in 1976 and Mars Pathfinder probe in 1997.

In July 2007, during the fourth mission extension, Martian dust storms blocked sunlight to the rovers and threatened the ability of the craft to gather energy through their solar panels, causing engineers to fear that one or both of them might be permanently disabled. However, the dust storms lifted, allowing them to resume operations.

On May 1, 2009, during its fifth mission extension, Spirit became stuck in soft soil on Mars. After nearly nine months of attempts to get the rover back on track, including using test rovers on Earth, NASA announced on January 26, 2010 that Spirit was being retasked as a stationary science platform. - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Exploration_Rover

Mars Exploration Rover Mission: Home
NASA's latest news from Spirit and Opportunity
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/mer/

Raw Images For Spirit and Opportunity
http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/all/

NASA - Mars Exploration Rovers
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mer/

Mars Exploration Program
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/

"This false-color view of a mineral vein called "Homestake" comes from the panoramic camera (Pancam) on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity. The vein is about the width of a thumb and about 18 inches (45 centimeters) long. Opportunity examined it in November 2011 and found it to be rich in calcium and sulfur, possibly the calcium-sulfate mineral gypsum.

Homestake is near the edge of the "Cape York" segment of the western rim of Endeavour Crater."

Links - http://marsrover.nasa.gov/gallery/press/opportunity/20111207a.html
http://marsrover.nasa.gov/gallery/all/opportunity_p2769.html
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-377&rn=news.xml&rst=3220