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God of War

Entry 339, on 2006-05-30 at 22:56:19 (Rating 1, Science)

This morning I read an article at the BBC News web site (one of the finest sites on the 'net) about the exploration of Mars. Of course, Mars was the Roman god of war, so I suppose we should consider it a challenging target for exploration. Although I have been a serious amateur astronomer for years, and follow space exploration fairly closely, I was surprised at the number of failures involving space craft sent to Mars which have occurred over the years.

The first mission was in 1965 when NASA sent the space craft Mariner 4 to the planet. It took just 22 images - they were all fuzzy and noisy. Six years later Mariner 9 gave the first detailed pictures showing the now-famous Mars geology of giant valleys and volcanoes. Over the years since then both the US and the USSR have lost many spacecraft which were intended to go to Mars. At one point the US was considering abandoning their Mars program completely.

Here's a list of some of the failed Mars missions: In 1969 the Soviet Union lost two probes at take-off. In 1971 Mariner 8 crashed into the ocean after launch. In 1971 the USSR Mars 3 space craft released a descent module but it crashed on the Martian surface. In 1973 Mars 4 and 5 attempted to orbit Mars but Mars 4 failed. In 1974 the USSR's Mars 6 and Mars 7 both failed to land on the surface. In 1988 contact was lost with another probe which was launched by the USSR because of a computer fault. In the same year another USSR space craft, Phobos 2, gathered some data before another computer problem resulted in a failure. A US probe, Mars Observer, stopped responding before going into orbit around the planet. In 1996, a Russian attempt to send another space craft, Mars 96, ended in failure when it crashed into the Pacific Ocean. In 1999, a NASA space craft, Mars Climate Orbiter, was lost as it arrived at Mars. Later that year, NASA's Mars Polar Lander stopped responding when it attempted to land on the planet.

After so many problems its a relief to anyone who supports space exploration that the latest missions have been so successful. The Mars Pathfinder rover mission was incredibly successful and was followed by millions on the Internet. Mars Global Surveyor has taken over 100,000 images so far. Mars Odyssey, Europe's Mars Express, and NASA's rovers Spirit and Opportunity, are performing beyond expectations.

Has life ever existed on Mars? There is certainly some interesting evidence that it has in the past, but no one is going to say for certain either way until more evidence is collected. At least the current success of Mars missions has taken some of the pressure off the need to justify the cost of this sort of research. Maybe Mars isn't so hostile, after all.

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