EXPLORATION
THE PLANETS
· Mars Pathfinder sends
back pictures of a cold climate
In July 1997, the Mars Pathfinder probe sent back panoramic images of Mars at 2,250 bits per second across 100 million miles of space to Earth. Pathfinder’s findings showed that temperatures can change drastically, dropping up to 22°C in minutes. Ever since the 1970s scientists have suspected that Mars, which have an average temperature of 220 Kelvins, 53 Kelvins blow water’s and had running water.
· Mars Surveyor and the
IO-year sampling programme
The Mars Surveyor mission in NASA’s 10 year, Mars. The programme includes the Mars Surveyor 2001 Lander, which is due to arrive on Mars in Dec 2001, and will undertake experiments with soil to test its acidity and toxic properties. In 1999, NASA will be launching the Deep Space II probe to analyse soil beneath Mars surface, and after 2005 it is planning to launch a mission to bring back rock and soil samples to Earth. Two further probes will make the voyage in 2003 and 2005.
· Pluto Express launch
is a remote possibility
Smaller than the moon, Pluto, the ninth planet from the Sun, is the one we know least about. There is even argument over whither or not it is a planet. In the early 1990s, a region of mysterious orbiting bodies too small to be planets were discovered between Neptune and Pluto. This has been named the Kuiper belt and some astronomers believe that Pluto is 2002, NASA will launch the Pluto Express probe to investigate Pluto and the Kuiper belt.
OTHER BODIES
Lunar Prospector finds
millions of tonnes of water
In March 1998, NASA's Luner Prospector detected what appeared to be ice in vast craters at the Moon's north ans south poles. Some scientists believe that sub-surfae water might have been driven to the surface to from ice during the Moon's frmation, while others believe it comes from comets and asteroids that have pounded the Moon over millions of years.
The Near Earth Asteroid
Rendezvous mission
In 1999, a probe will orbit one of the asteroids in the belt between Mars and Jupiter. Launched be NASA in 1996, the Near-Earth Asteroid Rendezvous mission will fly within 48 km of the asteroid Eros and measure its magnetic field, composition and mass distrbution.
