Crash and Burn Although the Sky Crane landed Curiosity safely to thesurface, the rocket-powered platform suffered a messy demise. After its job was done, it throttled-up and flew far away from the rover, ditching into the Mars landscape. This HiRISE image shows the carnage that the Sky Cranes mass left behind after impact -- a site to remember the Sky Cranes good work.Credit: NASA/ JPL-CaltechCollapse Caption-Man-Made Meteorites Shortly after Curiosity entered the Martian atmosphere, as it began its descent,the rovers aeroshell (a capsule composed of a heatshield and backshell) jettisoned six 55-pound (25-kilogram) tungsten slugs to improve its stability as it used the Martian atmosphere to steer to its target. These ballast slugs slammedinto the Martian surface -- basically man-made meteorites -- and could be spotted from orbit.Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Universityof ArizonCollapse Caption-Phoenix With all the excitement surrounding rovers, its about time to remember the not-so-mobile Mars explorers. On May 25, 2008, NASAs Phoenix Mars Lander touched down in Mars arctic regionto carry out experiments in a region we know little about. Using its arm-mounted scoop, the lander was able to retrieve samples from the freezing ground, dropping the material into its chemical laboratory for analysis. Phoenix made the landmark discovery of perchlorate in the soil and found water ice (that slowly sublimated) inthe uppermost layers of the permafrost. Although Phoenix was never going to last long -- the arcticwinter most likely cocooned the robot in ice. By Nov. 2, 2008, the mission was declared lost. Surrounding the landing site, however, small trench marks will likely remain -- remnants of Phoenixs science.Image: Phoenixs scoop it used to excavate thCollapse Caption-The Trendsetter NASAs first landers also left their mark on Mars. The Viking landers were hugely successful, returning the first images from the Martian surface and carrying out a suite of experiments to directly search for microbial life. Viking 1 lasted from July 1976 to November 1982; Viking 2 lasted from September 1976 to April 1980. To this day, the Viking experimental results are debated, but the deep trenches that were dug likely remain behind.MORE: Mars Curiosity Litter Bug Spied from Orbit: Photos........
Posted on: Sun, 26 Jan 2014 13:28:53 +0000
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