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Engines for Mars
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12124 |
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Section : |
NATURAL SCIENCE
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| Issue
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12 / 1987 |
3,674 Words |
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Joann T. Dennett
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The Babylonians interpreted the red appearance of the fourth planet from the Sun as anger and named that planet for their god of war, Nirgal. The Romans continued that tradition; their god of war was Mars.
Mars long ago captured the imagination of scientists, astronomers, and writers as a possible home for alien life. Poor telescope resolution between dark spots on the Martian surface caused some observers, such as Percival Lowell, to imagine they saw lines, which they supposed were canals. Lowell, an American astronomer, was convinced the "canals" were an advanced culture's irrigation system, and the term Martian became a byword for an alien being. Martian invasions became a popular theme for movies and comic strips.
Although the aliens never arrived on Earth, earthcraft already have gone to Mars. A series of U.S. Mariner spacecraft flew by or orbited Mars from 1964 to 1971, and two U.S. Viking spacecraft landed on the surface in 1976. The Mars orbiting portion of those Vikings transmitted back to Earth photographs of most of the Martian surface. In the early 1970s, three Soviet spacecraft reached Mars, but they either crash-landed or failed to operate after landing.
Every 780 days the Earth and Mars are on the same side of the sun simultaneously, a configuration astronomers call "in opposition." Because of the elliptical orbit of Mars, some oppositions bring the two planets much closer than other oppositions. Both U.S. and Russian scientists have taken advantage of these close passes to send space probes toward our planetary neighbor. Now both nations seem poised to commit to first-hand exploration of Mars.
The Soviet Union has announced a wide range of unmanned missions to Mars during the 1990s, and it is widely believed that they plan a manned mission for around the turn of the century. The U.S. National Commission on Space has recommended a national goal of human exploration of the solar system. A NASA panel headed by astronaut Sally K. Ride listed a manned mission to Mars as one of four primary goals.
"National interest in Mars exploration is growing at an ever-increasing rate. I firmly believe that we should go to Mars, and I am confident we will go," NASA administrator James C. Fletcher said last July at the Case for Mars III conference in Boulder, Colorado.
At this conference, a "spacebridge" linked Soviet and U.S.
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