Mars probe – what is it? Why are roving vehicles manufactured and sent into space?
Rovers have been sent into space since the beginning of the 1970s, and competitions for Mars rover are being held on Earth. The Poles are also successful in such competition. What exactly are Mars rovers? What is it built for and what can they do?
● A rover is a type of space probe capable of navigating the surface of another planet or moon.
● The first rover was sent to the Moon by the Russians in the 1970s.
● Until recently, only Americans succeeded in sending vehicles to Mars. The first Chinese spacecraft landed on the planet in 2021.
● Organizing competitions for the Mars rover helps advance the construction of the rover.
What is the Mars rover?
A spacecraft is a type of space probe, i.e. an unmanned spacecraft . While regular probes are designed for outer space travel, rovers have the ability to move over the surface of extraterrestrial objects, especially planets or moons.
Rovers, like all space probes, are used to conduct scientific research in extraterrestrial space . They are equipped with scientific devices capable of taking samples and performing some tests, and therefore they are equipped not only with cameras, but also with drills, lasers and even small chemical laboratories. The collected information is sent by radio to Earth.
Sending space probes is much cheaper than carrying out manned space missions. Keeping people alive in space would require not only making space for them on the ship, but also providing a supply of oxygen, water and food, and as a result would greatly complicate the entire structure.
Among space probes, rovers are among the most expensive. This is because the rover must be equipped with a safe landing system for its destination, as well as an additional drive for moving along its surface. The most common source of energy for roving vehicles is solar-charged batteries.
Rover – History
The first vehicles in history landed on the Moon, or Earth’s natural satellite. The Russians were the first to do so in the early 1970s by successfully dispatching two vehicles called Lunochod 1 and Lunochod 2.
The Mars Rovers, as the name implies, are intended to land on Mars. This planet is much farther from Earth than the Moon, and therefore flights to it are much more difficult. For the first time such a rover in 1971 was also sent by the Russians , however, it was never used due to communication failures.
The first successful landing of a lander on Mars was the work of the Americans in 1997. Weighing only 10.5 kg, the Sojourner rover lasted two and a half months and was only able to move within the range of its lander. But during this time, he conducted 15 chemical analyzes and sent 550 images of the surface of Mars to Earth.
More Mars rovers landed in 2004 as part of one US mission. The vehicles called Spirit and Opportunity were much larger, each weighing 185 kg, and lasted much longer than the three months – Spirit until 2010, and Opportunity until 2018.
More Mars rovers landed in 2012 – called Curiosity, and in 2021 – Perseverance, and the first non-US rover – China’s Zhurong . For the first time in history, up to three different rover vehicles, sent from two different countries, operate simultaneously on the planet Mars.
Mars rover – what is it for
Sending rovers to Mars is not only difficult, but also very expensive. Many missions were unsuccessful, incl. The American Mars Polar Lander touched down in 1999, the European Beagle 2 in 2003 and Schiaparelli in 2016, and most of the money spent on it has been lost.
Despite this , more and more probes and rovers are being sent to Mars , not only from the USA, but also, for example, from the UAE. Thanks to them, it is possible to drive more and more advanced research on the planet , its structure, history, climate and the possibility of life there. During previous missions, incl. The presence of water on this planet has been confirmed in the past.
Mars probes and rovers allow the development of space technologies that will be useful in the near future for the first manned flight to Mars. Such flights would be the next step in human space exploration.
Mars spacecraft competition
As part of the popularization of science and the development of new promising technologies, competitions for Mars riders have been organized for many years. They occur on Earth on specially prepared tracks to mimic the surface of Mars.
The most famous international Mars Rover competitions include the University Rover Challenge (URC) in the United States and the European Rover Challenge (ERC) in Europe. Teams of Polish students and doctoral students succeeded in both. Recently, in 2021, at the ERC competition organized in Kielce, the rover of the “Impuls” team from Kielce University of Technology won.
Main image source: unsplash
