Spacecraft are vehicles designed to fly and operate in outer space. Spacecraft are utilized for various uses such as satellite communications and meteorology.
Engineers had tested the landing system of Mars Pathfinder by deploying four parachutes at high altitude. While searching online for images from those tests, Manning discovered images of 16-millimeter film cans.
Spirit
Spirit and Opportunity successfully made their first landing on Mars on January 3, 2004; setting in motion an unprecedented mission that outshone all expectations. After an uncomfortably hot six minute descent through its atmosphere protected by cushioned airbags, they safely stopped inside Gusev Crater, before setting out on an exploration that unlocked secrets about Mars’ past watery existence.
As soon as the first images reached mission control, everyone started celebrating! Spirit had found its scientific breakthrough at Home Plate – an area known for its silica-rich soil near Columbia Hills named in honor of lost space shuttle crew members – where she found evidence that early Mars had once been wet with volcanic explosions, hydrothermal activity such as hot springs and steam vents, along with signs that it had once been wetter than thought before the space probe arrived.
Opportunity
NASA’s twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity completely changed our understanding of early Mars. Opportunity proved the more successful of the two in uncovering evidence that water once flowed on Red Planet.
As they drove further through an ancient landscape that stretched for miles, exploring an expanse of meteorite-blasted iron oxide landscape surrounded by rugged mountains under an orange sky, they traversed crater floors, summited hills, and traversed what may have been dry riverbeds.
Opportunity was never without risk. In 2005, it crashed through a sand dune and became stuck; engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California sent commands that gradually freed it over several months. Since then, Opportunity studied rocks older than those at its first study site before eventually reaching Endeavour Crater’s edge where it sat until June 10, 2018 when she finally stopped communicating with Earth – all this according to plan!
Phoenix
Phoenix made history when it landed farther north than any previous spacecraft on Mars’ polar region and its mission centered around learning whether or not the polar caps seen by Mars Odyssey orbiter were composed of water ice.
Phoenix made its landing site debut on May 25, 2008. After waiting 20 minutes to allow dust to settle, it deployed stereo camera and weather mast systems as well as collecting soil samples from its landing site.
Scientists are using the instrument suite of the Phoenix probe to search for evidence of simple life on Mars. Of particular interest are organic molecules, which would likely exist there if any organisms had once made up its composition; unfortunately, however, none have been detected due to rapid degradation from geological processes.
Mariner 9
Mariner 9 arrived at Mars on November 13, 1971 after an 170 day journey, encountering a massive dust storm that obscured much of its surface. When this settled, scientists saw canyons cutting across its surface, volcanoes like Olympus Mons and evidence of flowing water such as layered polar deposits – among many other interesting features – on Mars.
These images changed our conceptions of life on Mars significantly. It became obvious that there was water present both underground and on its surface; in volatile forms as well.
Mariner 9 continued sending back pictures of Mars until its attitude control gas ran out on October 27, 1972, at which point technicians at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena pasted all 7,329 pictures back onto two globes at that location.
Beagle 2
Beagle 2 was launched by ESA in 2003 to investigate whether life could ever have existed on Mars, carrying with it a miniaturised laboratory and all necessary instruments to search for signs of organic molecules associated with life in rock samples. Unfortunately, after landing on Christmas Day it vanished without trace; Professor Colin Pillinger who designed its mission had only one question for this mystery of space travel: Why didn’t everything work out as planned?
Beagle 2’s latest analysis indicates that its descent and landing sequence was successful; however, communication with orbiting spacecraft could not be established due to an incomplete deployment of its onboard antenna. This news came as great relief to its developers but does not explain what went wrong with its mission.