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Scientists are particularly interested in Saturn's moon Titan because it's one of the few known moons with its own dense atmosphere. Titan's atmosphere is also thought to be very similar to what Earth's atmosphere was a long time ago. By learning about Titan, we'll learn about our own planet.
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This site is no longer maintained. It contains historical data.

For current information about the NASA Astrobiology Program, please visit http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/


2001-10-29 | MISSIONS, TECHNOLOGIES
Success of Mars Odyssey Satellite Puts Communications Link in Place for Upcoming Rover Mission

Having successfully entered orbit around Mars last week, the 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft is positioned not only to study Mars from above, but also to relay data gathered by the future Mars Exploration Rovers (MERs) to Earth. Had the Odyssey mission burned up in Mars' atmosphere or bounced off into space, the upcoming rover mission would have been jeopardized. The two ground vehicles would have had to depend on the aging Mars Global Surveyor orbiter to beam their results back home. The rovers will launch in 2003 and touch down on Mars in 2004. Each will carry a laboratory of instruments, known as the Athena payload, to look for evidence of liquid water in Mars' past.

Readings from Odyssey's Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) will help scientists pick two final landing sites for the rovers. Four candidate sites have been proposed based on images from Mars Global Surveyor which show evidence that water once flowed there. Another Odyssey instrument, the Gamma Ray Spectrometer (GRS), will peer a few feet into the soil to look for buried water ice. Astrobiologist believe that liquid water would have been necessary for life ever to have arisen on Mars.


More on this story Full text of original item from Cornell Univ., Oct 29, 2001

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The preceding news links are provided as a public service for interested users. The views and claims expressed in external internet sites are not necessarily those of NASA.

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