Come December 2003 - January 2004, an armada of five new invaders [
http://www.planetar…] from Earth should arrive on the shores of the Red Planet -- the Japanese ( ISAS [
http://www.isas.ac.…]) Nozomi [
http://www.isas.ac.…index.html ] orbiter, the European Space Agency's Mars Express [
http://sci.esa.int/…] orbiter carrying the Beagle 2 [
http://www.beagle2.…] lander, and NASA's own two Mars Exploration [
http://mars.jpl.nas…] Rovers. While Nozomi began [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] its interplanetary voyage in 1998, the other spacecraft are scheduled for launch windows beginning this June. Clearly, earthdwellers remain intensely curious about Mars and the tantalizing [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] possibility of past or present martian life [
http://cmex-www.arc…stratex.htm ], with these robotic missions focussing on investigating the planet's atmosphere and the search for water [
http://www.psrd.haw…]. This mosaic [
http://nssdc.gsfc.n…marsglobe2.txt ] of over 100 Viking 1 orbiter images of Mars [
http://nssdc.gsfc.n…photogallery-mars.ht ml ] was recorded in 1980 and is projected to show the perspective seen from an approaching spacecraft at a distance of 2,000 kilometers. Exceptional [
http://skyandtelesc…article_929_1.asp ] views of Mars will be possible from earthbound telescopes in August and September.
Explanation
Come December 2003 - January 2004, an armada of five new invaders [
http://www.planetar…] from Earth should arrive on the shores of the Red Planet -- the Japanese ( ISAS [
http://www.isas.ac.…]) Nozomi [
http://www.isas.ac.…index.html ] orbiter, the European Space Agency's Mars Express [
http://sci.esa.int/…] orbiter carrying the Beagle 2 [
http://www.beagle2.…] lander, and NASA's own two Mars Exploration [
http://mars.jpl.nas…] Rovers. While Nozomi began [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] its interplanetary voyage in 1998, the other spacecraft are scheduled for launch windows beginning this June. Clearly, earthdwellers remain intensely curious about Mars and the tantalizing [
http://antwrp.gsfc.…] possibility of past or present martian life [
http://cmex-www.arc…stratex.htm ], with these robotic missions focussing on investigating the planet's atmosphere and the search for water [
http://www.psrd.haw…]. This mosaic [
http://nssdc.gsfc.n…marsglobe2.txt ] of over 100 Viking 1 orbiter images of Mars [
http://nssdc.gsfc.n…photogallery-mars.ht ml ] was recorded in 1980 and is projected to show the perspective seen from an approaching spacecraft at a distance of 2,000 kilometers. Exceptional [
http://skyandtelesc…article_929_1.asp ] views of Mars will be possible from earthbound telescopes in August and September.
Explanation
