Marslander

Marsrover

Mars is the name of the god of war in English owing to its red color. The redness of Mars originates from oxidized Iron. On the earth, if we use telescope to observe Mars, we may see the geographical figures of mixed channels on this red planet indicating billions years ago, there used to be water flowing on the surface. Once scientists even doubted the existence of civilized creatures in the past. Authors of scientific fictions ever described the attack to the earth launched by Mars. In the ancient time, creatures such as lichen might live under the rocks and soil. Although there might be water in the deep surface of Mars, yet till now the low surface temperature and thin atmosphere make the existence of water become impossible. There is snow in polar area. What caused the climate change on Mars? What conditions are required to have the original existence of lives? At present, is there any living creature under stratum? Above questions motivate Mars exploration. The exploration will help us understand the factors resulting in climate change on the earth and further probe the possibilities of the existence of living creatures on other planets of the solar system.

Ways of Mars Exploration:
Till now, the mission of Mars exploration is carried out by launching space probe. Before towarding Mars, scientists would put probes into the temporary orbits of the earth and start the rocket after accurate calculating. It takes about 11 months for the probe to travel from the earth to the moon. Most of time, probes are not designed to return back to the earth; therefore, they are equipped with instrument for long term working such as measurers and detectors. Once they land on Mars, they can begin to observe, analyze, and study the atmosphere and geology of Mars and transmitted the detected information back to the earth for the preparation of further manned Mars exploration.

Take the US Viking plan as example to illustrate the procedure of Mars landing. NASA is the main conductor of Mars exploration plan including Viking 1 and 2 space probes consisting of an orbiter and a lander aiming for attaining Mars images of better resolution, analyzing geological condition and the composition of the atmosphere, and finding out the evidence of the previous existence of lives. Viking 1 space probe was launched at Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA, on June 19, 1976 and jettisoned from orbiter on July 20, 1976 and entered the atmosphere of Mars. Finally, it conducted soft landing safely on Mars.

Viking 2 was launched on September 9, 1975, reached to the upper orbit of Mars on August 7, 1976, and finally landed on Mars on September 3, 1976. Besides taking photos of Mars images from upper orbit, it also sent more than 1, 4000 photos of close up distance and relevant information. Viking plan provides scientists comprehensive information of Mars landscape including volcanoes, canyons, hole of volcanoes, weathering landscape, and the existence of surface water. Nevertheless, the biotech analysis of soil indicated that there are no living creatures on Mars. Viking plan was halted on May 21, 1983.

【以電腦模擬火星生物進入地球影片】