Mars Exploration Rovers by Steve Kortenkamp

Author:Steve Kortenkamp [Kortenkamp, Steve]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: 9781491481066;9781491481394;9781491481431;You Choose Books;You Choose Space;nonfiction;Mars (Planet);Exploration;Juvenile literature;Roving vehicles (Astronautics);Space robotics
Publisher: Capstone
Published: 2016-07-14T00:00:00+00:00

Vast amounts of water once flowed through the Kasei Valles and emptied in the Chryse Planitia.

As the first images come back from Viking, the screen begins filling line by line. You and Nather see a pale brown sky and the dish of the communication antenna. As the lines progress, the distant horizon of Mars suddenly appears. Then rocks and soil near the lander come into view. Finally, the image shows instruments on the lander and the American flag painted on a side.

The team at JPL’s Mission Control are excited to see the first pictures from the surface of Mars, confirming their hard work with the lander. At the same time you and the other scientists feel deeply disappointed at how lifeless Mars looks.

Of course, you hadn’t expected to see little green Martians. But these plains look barren. This scene repeats itself as more images came down from Viking 1, and six weeks later from the Viking 2 lander on the other side of Mars.

There was no sign of life at all in any of the Viking images. No plants or animals were visible. Scientists use the robotic arm to scoop and test the Martian soil. It doesn’t contain even tiny microorganisms such as bacteria. Despite how wet and lively scientists thought Mars might be, the images show a cold desert planet.

Mars is never far from your thoughts as you work on other space missions. You become part of the science teams that parachute a probe into Jupiter’s atmosphere and send a lander to the surface of Titan, a giant moon of Saturn. Then NASA announces two new missions to Mars. Mars Polar Lander will search for water near the south pole of Mars. Mars Pathfinder involves launching a small rover to study land formations.

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