February, 2004 - Nr. 2
Mars exploration
"Made in Germany"
TWIG - German technology aboard the robot explorer Spirit is helping NASA scientists to search for ancient signs of water on Mars — and to unlock other clues about the mysterious red planet’s past.
Controllers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory said that the German-made instruments — an alpha particle X-ray spectrometer and a Mossbauer spectrometer — appeared to be in good working order after the Spirit rover’s rough-and-tumble landing on a large basin that scientists believe may be the site of dry lake bed once fed by a long, deep Martian river.
The instruments were supplied by the German Space Agency, the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry and the University of Mainz.
Located on the golf-cart sized rover’s retractable arm, they are already providing a treasure trove of information about the composition and structure of the rocks that Spirit has encountered at its landing site.
Scientists hope to find iron-bearing rocks and other minerals that could have been formed in hot, watery conditions that may once have supported life.
Spirit is expected to roll off its lander later this week and embark on its three-month exploration mission. Another rover, called Opportunity, is barrelling toward the opposite side of Mars and is scheduled to land later this month.
Republished with permission from "The Week in Germany"
Links:
Max
Planck Institute for Chemistry
