We have a lot to catch up with on this page! A Lot has happened on Mars and we need a kid volunteer to get this page up to date and current!! WHO will step forward?? Let Mr. Smith know if you are willing to accept this challenge.
Dates of the
Pathfinder Project
NASA scientists chose an ancient flood plain on Mars as the landing site for the Pathfinder, a small, low-cost spacecraft. Long ago, when water might have flowed on Mars, great floods covered the landing site, which is a rocky plain in an area called Ares Vallis. The site is 850 kilometers (527 miles) southeast of the spot where Viking Lander 1 landed on Mars in 1976. Did you know Viking was the first spacecraft to land on Mars? Pathfinder was the first to land on Mars in almost 20 years. It landed in a place where scientists want to study rock and soil samples.
Here we are coming down to the planet using a parachute and airbags to make the landing. The spacecraft hit the surface and bounced as high as a ten-story building before coming to rest.
The drawing shows the open lander. The sides open like flower petals.
The purpose of the new Pathfinder mission is to
show a low-cost system for travelling to and landing on Mars. The
lander, carried a small robot vehicle called the microrover.
The microrover was controlled by scientists on Earth. It rolled out
to look at the rocks and soil. Both lander and rover carried
scientific instruments and cameras. The lander gathered data about
the atmosphere during the landing. While functioning on the surface
of Mars, it was a weather station and a radio base for the rover. The
lander and the rover are both solar powered.
Ares Vallis
The Ares Vallis site is at the mouth of what scientists believe
used to be a large outflow channel of rushing water. Rocks found here
could tell us a lot about Mars. The rocks would have been moved down
from higher ground as floods washed over Mars.
Mars Global Surveyor was launched on November 7, 1996 and traveled through space on its way to Mars at 
about
74,000 miles per hour. It entered the atmosphere of Mars on September
11, 1997. The Global Surveyor is scheduled to orbit Mars and gather
data for one Martian year (approximately two Earth years). Why do
you think we might want a map of Mars?
The Global Surveyor has been
orbiting the planet, taking pictures of the surface that will be used
to make maps of the landscape. The main places of interest are the
planet's ancient hot springs, dry lake beds, river channels,
volcanoes and polar caps - all places that could have once had, or
still might have, life. Maybe the Global Surveyor will even tell us
more about the famous "face" on Mars. Is it really a face?
You can visit the Mars Global Surveyor home page at http://http://marsweb.jpl.nasa.gov/