Nasa’s most ambitious and expensive Mars mission begins over the red planet early Monday morning after completing a nearly nine-month journey covering 340 million miles.
Curiosity is the largest, fastest and most the sophisticated rover Nasa has landed on the red planet to date and can run at a speed of 90 metres per hour and has a laser chemical analyser that can evaluate rock composition at a distance of 13 metres.
Curiosity is the first Mars rover powered by nuclear power. A nuclear generator will produce heat generated by the radioactive decay of non-weapons-grade plutonium-238. The heat will be converted into electrical power supplying the rover’s batteries day and night. The mission is expected to last at least two years and the rover is expected to travel 12 miles or more from its landing position.
The rover’s aim will be to investigate the Gale Crater, named after Australian astronomer, Walter Frederick Gale, to see if the site offers the potential of water.
Scientists are keeping their fingers crossed since from the 40 spacecraft dispatched to the red planet, only 14 lived to fulfil their missions.
The $2.5-billion Mars Science Laboratory, which weighs one tonne, will be lowered to the ground on a tether spooled out by a flying platform that works like an aerial crane.
Exploration of Mars by other nations has not been easy.
Russia has made 19 attempts but has met with only partial successes. Many of its failures were marked by launch failures while some of its spacecraft was burned up in the red planet’s atmosphere during a landing attempt.
Newcomers Japan and China have fared no better. Only Europe, which operates the Mars Express orbiter, has seen some success.
India is ready to join the league amongst this elite club. India’s prestigious Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) has announced that it plans to send an orbiter to the red planet next year which will orbit 62 miles above Mars.
Although India’s cost, as announced by Isro of $90 million, is only a fraction of Nasa’s budget for Curiosity, this will be a major step forward for the Indian programme.
The cost will go largely towards the construction of the 320-tonne rocket which will carry the orbiter. Once in place, it plans to study the red planet’s climate and geology.
But already the Mars Mission, which has been approved by the Cabinet, was criticised by former ISRP chief G. Madhavan Nair, who felt manned missions to space should have been a priority.