Avalanches on Mars surprise NASA astronomers

William Atkins
Tuesday, 04 March 2008 18:12

Science - Space

Five more missions are planned for Mars over the next ten years. The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) rover will launch in 2009 and the Mars Aeronomy Scout mission will take off in 2013. MSL will be similar to the rovers Spirit and Opportunity, although much more advanced in technologies.

The Phoenix spacecraft, already launched on August 4, 2007, is in route to Mars and is expected to land on the northern pole region of Mars on May 25, 2008. The Phoenix spacecraft is the first spacecraft in the Mars Scout program. The Mars Aeronomy Scout spacecraft (yet unnamed), to be launched in 2013 (as mentioned above), is the second spacecraft of the mission.

The Dawn spacecraft, launched September 27, 2007, is expected to flyby Mars in 2009.

It is exciting times in Martian exploration. We are learning new things about Mars all the time. Most of them are things that happened millions of years ago. However, the avalances are events that are happening now.

Additional investigations onto the surface of Mars, will, undoubtedly, learn more about the daily life of Mars. These investigations are important so we can learn more about how the solar system developed, how we developed on Earth.

These discoveries are also important for future manned Martian missions as we carefully develop spacecraft that one day will take us to Mars. [updated 3-5-08]