Mission: Mars: The Thrilling History of the Red Planet (Destination Outer Space Book 2) by Hamilton John

Author:Hamilton, John [Hamilton, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: RavenFire Media, Inc.
Published: 2019-09-20T16:00:00+00:00

A panorama view of Mars taken by Pathfinder. The Sojourner rover can be seen inspecting a large boulder on the right.

Chapter 7

Mars Polar Lander

Scientists who work on sending spaceships to Mars know that it is hard to do. So many things can go wrong, from launch explosions to crashing while trying to land, and everything in between. The success of the Mars Pathfinder mission gave NASA managers confidence that Mars missions really could be achieved quickly and cheaply.

The Mars Polar Lander was a 640-pound (290-kg) spacecraft. Its main mission was to search for water ice near the Martian south pole. It carried two robotic bullets that would be fired into the ground just before the probe landed. They would burrow deeply into the soil, where the harmful effect of the Sun’s rays had not altered the dirt’s chemistry. That information could tell scientists much about the early geology of Mars.

Mars Polar Lander was launched on January 3, 1999. It reached Mars on December 3, 1999. It was aiming for a region called Planum Australe. Everything seemed to be going well as the spacecraft entered the planet’s thin atmosphere and streaked toward the ground. Suddenly, contact with the spacecraft was lost. Many minutes passed with no signal from the lander. Finally, Mars Polar Lander was declared lost.

A team of scientists later discovered that as the probe approached the surface, its landing legs extended as planned. However, the vibrations caused the on-board computer to think it had already landed. It shut down the retrorockets too soon. The lander fell the last 100 feet (30 m) to the frozen ground and was destroyed. The Mars Polar Lander was an embarrassing failure.

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