Year

Mars Odyssey Launch: Apr. 7,

2001
Arrival: Oct.
24, 2001

Cost
$297
million

Purpose (length of time expected

to function, questions to answer)
To determine the composition of
the planet's surface, also to detect
water and shallow buried ice, and
to study the radiation
environment.
Mapping was one of the main
goals for the $297-million
spacecraft. Odyssey was
supposed to look at the chemical
and mineralogical composition of
Mars' surface in visual and
infrared wavelengths.
Additionally, it was supposed to
keep an eye out for hydrogen (a
likely indicator of water ice) and
serve as a communications relay
for the Spirit and Opportunity
rovers that would land on Mars in
2004.

Opportunity

Arrival: January $400

24, 2004
million
Launch: July 7,
2003

What it accomplished and length of time

it actually functioned
The spacecraft has been orbiting Mars
since October 24, 2001- present (the
longest-serving piece of machinery to
work at Mars.). The spacecraft serves as
a vital relay for NASA's Mars rover
Curiosity.(send back images and
information)
1. In 2008, Odyssey spotted
evidence of salt deposits across
about 200 places in the south of
Mars.
2. In 2007 NASA sent out pictures
of seven possible caves snapped
by Mars Odyssey.
3. In 2010, NASA released a global
map stitched together from
21,000 THEMIS images taken
over eight years. This map
showed features of as small as
330 feet (100 meters) in size,
although NASA said Odyssey
has mapped certain areas at an
even higher resolution.

Mission planners expected based

on Mars Odyssey's fuel
consumption, the spacecraft is
expected to last until at least
2015.
They are designed to answer a
January 24, 2004 present
critical question in the search for
1. Opportunity stumbled upon a
life. We know Mars had water, we
rock that would prove to be one
know it had it in the past, it may
the rovers most significant
have it in the present. What we
finds: a meteorite on the surface
don't know is how long this water
of Mars (the meteorite was the
existed in place and how long it
first one ever discovered on a
stayed there. If it stayed there for
planet other than Earth).
tens of millions of years, there's a
2. Upon arriving at Victoria carter
good chance that life might have
on 16 September 2006,
evolved. Because on Earth,
Opportunity photographed the
wherever we find water, energy
crater and returned the first
and organic compounds, we find
substantial views of Victorias 7
life. No matter what the
kilometer wide impact crater.
conditions are."
3. Travelling 21.33 miles,
Opportunity has exceeded by
So we want to really find out
more the 50 times the driving
whether or not Mars had what it
distance it was built for, it

takes, whether it had the

conditions necessary to support
life.
When Spirit and Opportunity
landed on Mars in January 2004,
mission planners expected them
to last about three months and
travel approximately eight times
the length of a football field (730
meters, or 2,400 feet)
Spirit

Launch Date:
June 10, 2003
Landed:
January 4, 2004

$400
Million

To study a diverse collection of

rocks and soils that may hold
clues to past water activity
When Spirit and Opportunity
landed on Mars in January 2004,
mission planners expected them
to last about three months and
travel approximately eight times
the length of a football field (730
meters, or 2,400 feet)

survived a severe Martian dust

storm despite legitimate fears
that it would not, it has
conducted long-term
investigations of four craters and
entered, under its own power,
two craters (not including the
hole-in-one landing in Eagle
Crater), and it has survived 30.6
times longer than originally
planned.
Jan 2004 March 22, 2010
(trapped in a sandstorm)
1. Spirit was still sitting in its
landing shell when it spotted the
first possible signs of water in
the distance: carbonate, which
often forms in wet environments.
2. Spirit eventually made its way to
the Columbia Hills, a small
group of low-lying hills about 3
km from the landing site, and
rocks examined there do show
evidence of interaction with
small amounts of briny (salty)
water.
3. Then, in March, Spirit hit a
jackpot: it found a volcanic rock
that had hints of a watery past in
its composition.
4. Three months later, NASA was
surprised when Spirit stumbled
across hematite, which is a
mineral that can form in water.
Opportunity also found hematite
at its landing site halfway across
Mars
5. The rover found "water-altered
minerals" nearby when it
resumed operations in late 2006
6. March 2007, NASA announced
the rover churned up some soil
that had sulfur and water traces
in it.

Curiousity

Launch:
November 26
2011
Arrival:
August 6th 2012
(K.Chang,2012)

$2.5
billion

MAVEN

Launch:
November 18,
2013

$671
million
(Park,
M.
1970)

Arrival:
Sunday, Sept.
21, 2014

August 6th 2012- present

1. NASA's Mars rover Curiosity
has captured rare views of the
The primary mission will last one
Martian moons Phobos and
Mars year, or 98 Earth weeks.
Deimos as they crossed the sun.
(Castro, J. 2011)
The solar eclipse views from
The Mars Science Laboratory
Mars will help astronomers
mission's main goal is to
studying the moons themselves,
determine whether the Red Planet
and can aid in studies about the
is, or ever was, capable of
internal composition of Mars,
supporting microbial life.
too, scientists say.
1. Evaluate the planet's
2. NASA's Mars rover Curiosity
biological potential by
has discovered what appears to
searching for organic
be an ancient streambed where
carbon compounds and
water once washed across the
other chemical elements
Martian surface, possibly
important for life, such as
reaching hip-deep depths.
nitrogen, phosphorous,
3. Found Mars Flower
sulfur and oxygen.
4. Drills into 2 rocks
2. Analyze the geology of
5. Curiosity caught sight of
the rover's field site, the
Phobos, one of Mars' two small
Gale Crater, to look for
moons in a new video beamed
clues of an energy source
back to Earth.
for life.
6. Curiosity has found three iron
3. Describe the evolution of
meteorites, the first space rocks
Mars' atmosphere, how it's
on the Martian surface of its
currently distributed
mission, NASA images reveal.
around the planet, and
how water and carbon
dioxide cycle through it.
4. Characterize the planet's
surface radiation, which
could pose a hazard to life
and break up organic
compounds. (Castro, J.
2011)
The goal of MAVEN is to
determine the role that loss of
atmospheric gas to space played
in changing the Martian climate
through time. Where did the
atmosphere and the water go?
MAVEN will determine how
much of the Martian atmosphere
has been lost over time by
measuring the current rate of
Looking for ancient habitable
environments.

Insight

Launch:
will be
between March capped
8, 2016 and
at $425
March 27, 2016
Arrival:
September 2016

escape to space and gathering

enough information about the
relevant processes to allow
extrapolation backward in time.
(Will provide first-of-its-kind
measurements and address key
questions about Mars climate and
habitability and improve
understanding of dynamic
processes in the upper Martian
atmosphere and ionosphere.)
(Provide information about the
Red Planet's atmosphere, climate
history and potential habitability
in greater detail than ever before.)
Is a proposed NASA Discovery
Program mission that will place a
single geophysical lander on
Mars to study its deep interior.

In planning

Bibliography
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http://www.astronautix.com/craft/maryssey.htm
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