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Navigators must safely maneuver Spirit and Opportunity to their precise atmospheric entry points to reach their landing targets on the surface of Mars. In only six minutes, the spacecraft must slow down from an incredible speed of 12,000 mph to nearly zero. In this three-part episode of “The Challenges of Getting to Mars,” spacecraft engineers give a play-by-play of the Entry, Decent, and Landing mission phase that they refer to as their nailbiting “Six Minutes of Terror.”

Download Complete Movie (.mov) [1] [2] (.mpg) [1]

Wiki on MARS

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in our solar system. It is named after Mars, the Roman god of war. Mars is also known as “The Red Planet” due to its reddish night time appearance when seen from Earth. The prefix areo-, from the Greek god of war, Ares, refers to Mars in the same way geo- refers to Earth â€” for example, areology versus geology.

Until the first flyby of Mars by Mariner 4 in 1965, it was thought that Mars had channels of liquid water. Observations later showed that these channels do not exist. Still, of any planet in our solar system after the Earth, Mars is the most likely to harbor liquid water, and perhaps life. It also has seasonal cycles that are similar to the ones on Earth. It also has a rotational period nearly the same as our own. It has the highest mountain in the solar system, Olympus Mons, the largest canyon in the solar system, Valles Marineris, and polar ice caps.

Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos, which are small and oddly-shaped. These may be captured asteroids such as 5261 Eureka. Mars can be seen from Earth by the naked eye with a brightness of up to -2.9 magnitude, only surpassed by Venus, the Moon and the Sun.

Mars is currently host to four orbiting spacecraft and the two Mars Exploration Rovers, many more than any planet, other than Earth.

Exploration

Dozens of spacecraft, including orbiters, landers, and rovers, have been sent to Mars by the Soviet Union, the United States, Europe, and Japan to study the planet’s surface, climate, and areography. Roughly two-thirds of all spacecraft destined for Mars have failed in one manner or another before completing or even beginning their missions. Part of this high failure rate can be ascribed to technical problems, but enough have either failed or lost communications for no apparent reason that some researchers half-jokingly speak of an Earth-Mars “Bermuda Triangle”, or a Mars Curse, or even a reference made to a “Great Galactic Ghoul” that feeds on Martian spacecraft.

Past missions

The first successful fly-by mission to Mars was NASA’s Mariner 4 launched in 1964. The first successful objects to land on the surface were two Soviet probes from the Mars probe program, launched in 1971, but both lost contact within seconds of landing. Then came the 1975 NASA launches of the Viking program, which consisted of two orbiters, each having a lander. Both landers successfully touched down in 1976 and remained operational for many years.

Viking on Mars

Current missions

Following the 1992 failure of NASA’s Mars Observer orbiter, they launched the Mars Global Surveyor in 1996. This mission was a complete success, having finished its primary mapping mission in early 2001. Only a month after the launch of the Surveyor, NASA launched the Mars Pathfinder,

carrying a robotic exploration vehicle, which landed in the Ares Vallis on Mars. This mission was another big success, and received much publicity, partially due to the many spectacular images that were sent back to Earth.

In 2001 NASA launched the successful Mars Odyssey orbiter, which is still in orbit as of August 2006. Odyssey’s Gamma Ray Spectrometer detected significant amounts of elemental hydrogen in the upper meter or so of Mars’ regolith. This hydrogen is thought to be contained in large deposits of water ice.

In 2003, the ESA launched the Mars Express craft consisting of the Mars Express Orbiter and the lander Beagle 2. Beagle 2 apparently failed during descent and was declared lost in early February 2004. In early 2004 the Planetary Fourier Spectrometer team announced it had detected methane in the Martian atmosphere.

Also in 2003, NASA launched the twin Mars Exploration Rovers named Spirit (MER-A) and Opportunity (MER-B). Both missions landed successfully in January 2004 and have met or exceeded all their targets. Among the most significant science returns has been the conclusive evidence that liquid water existed at some time in the past at both landing sites. Martian dust devils are known to be passing over the Rovers, cleaning their solar panels, and thus extending their lifespan.

On August 12, 2005 the NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter probe was launched toward the planet, to conduct a two-year science survey. The purpose of the mission is to do more studies and prepare the upcoming lander missions. It arrived in orbit on March 10, 2006. The next scheduled mission to Mars is the NASA Phoenix Mars lander, expected to launch in 2007.

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Entry, Descent, and Landing

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