2003 Rover
This artist's rendering shows a view of NASA's Mars 2003
Rover as it sets off roam the surface of the red planet. The
rover is scheduled for launch in June 2003 and will arrive in
January 2004, shielded in its landing by an airbag shell. The
airbag/lander structure, which has no scientific instruments of
its own, is shown to the right in this image, behind the rover.
The rover will carry five scientific instruments
and rock abrading device. The Panoramic Camera and the
Miniature Thermal Emission Spectrometer are located on the large
mast shown on the front of the rover. The camera will be
supplied by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.;
and the spectrometer will be supplied by Arizona State University
in Tempe. The payload also includes magnetic targets, provided by
the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark, that will
collect magnetic dust for further study by the science
instruments.
The Rock Abrasion Tool is located on a robotic arm that can be
deployed to study rocks and soil.(In this view, the robotic arm
is tucked under the front of the rover.) The tool, provided by
Honeybee Robotics Ltd., New York, N.Y., will grind away the outer
surfaces of rocks, which may be dusty and weathered, allowing the
science instruments to determine the nature of rock interiors.
The three instruments that will study the abraded rocks are a
Mossbauer Spectrometer, provided by the Johannes Gutenberg-
University Mainz, Germany; an Alpha-Proton X-ray Spectrometer
provided by Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, also in Mainz,
Germany; and a Microscopic Imager, supplied by JPL. The payload
also includes magnetic targets, provided by the Niels Bohr
Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark, that will collect magnetic dust
for further study by the science instruments.
In a landing similar to that of the 1997 Mars Pathfinder spacecraft,
a parachute will deploy to slow the spacecraft down and airbags
will inflate to cushion the landing. Petals of the landing
structure will unfold to release the rover, which will drive off
to begin its exploration. JPL manages the Mars 2003 Rover
for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C. JPL is a
division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY is the lead institution for the
science payload.
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