Table of Contents
New eyes on Mars: The Physics of the Pathfinder Mission
Some facts about Mars...
Technical data
Technical data, continued
Pre-20C Mars Maps
Enigmatic Mars?
Real Mars Landscapes: Giant volcanoes
…ancient water
…canyons, craters and ice caps.
South pole ice cap
Mars - 3.5 Billion BC?
Mars - 3.5 Billion BC!
History
Atmosphere & water leak into space
History of Search for Life on Mars
Any Life Now? - No . . . . or Yes?
PPT Slide
The Mars Pathfinder Mission
Mission aims
Launch December 4 1996 Cape Canaveral
Express delivery Mars, July 4 1997
Real signs of civilized life on Mars
Bouncy landing
Landing Site
Pathfinder Lander and Sojourner
Main experiments
Very cool on the way down
Ready for action
Ramp deployment and descent of Sojourner
Off to work! Lots of rocks on ancient flood plain
The Mother ship
Sojourner rover
APXS deployment
APX spectrometer head
Analysis Modes
PIXE - Particle Induced X-ray Emission
PIXE
Every element a unique x-ray energy
FeS2 (Pyrite) with other elements...
Spectra from Mars: Ancient iron-rich crust
Backscattering spectrometry
Nuclear reactions
Analysis Modes
Head components
X-ray detector
Excellent off-road performance!
Rover roamings
Ferromagnetic dust on Mars
PPT Slide
Cloudy days
Sunset on Mars
Conclusion: Main findings
What Next?
What Next?
References
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Author: David N. Jamieson
Email: dnj@physics.unimelb.edu.au
Home Page: http://www.ph.unimelb.edu.au/~dnj
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