Exploratour: NASA's Exploration for Life

The Rover meets the rock Yogi.
Click on image for full size
NASA

The Mars Surveyor Program was put in place by NASA as a long-term program of exploration of Mars, with the focus to bring back to Earth a sample of the Martian terrain in 2005. This program will help scientists understand the complete environment of Mars. The program will study
  • the climate of Mars:
  • the water cycle
  • the carbon cycle
  • the atmosphere
    • storms
    • movement of particles
    • condensation of water
    • temperature fluctuations
  • the composition of the surface and atmosphere
Five spacecraft in all may be sent to Mars between 1996 and 2005. Those spacecraft include the Mars Global Surveyor, and the Mars Climate Orbiter and Polar Lander. After all the information is gathered, scientists may know more about the evolution of Mars and its potential to harbor life.

You may leave the tour and read more about this program with this link to the section on the Exploration of Mars



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Windows to the Universe, a project of the National Earth Science Teachers Association, is sponsored in part is sponsored in part through grants from federal agencies (NASA and NOAA), and partnerships with affiliated organizations, including the American Geophysical Union, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Earth System Information Partnership, the American Meteorological Society, the National Center for Science Education, and TERC. The American Geophysical Union and the American Geosciences Institute are Windows to the Universe Founding Partners. NESTA welcomes new Institutional Affiliates in support of our ongoing programs, as well as collaborations on new projects. Contact NESTA for more information. NASA ESIP NCSE HHMI AGU AGI AMS NOAA