Mars+Exploration+Rover

 This is an ongoing space mission carried out by NASA on exploration of Mars. IT first began in 2003 sending two rovers Spirit and Opportunity to research on the surface of the Mars and its geology. Its main purpose is to search for and characterize a wide range of rocks and soils that holds clues of the past water activity of Mars. The total cost of building, launching, landing and operating the rover on the surface for the initial 90day primary mission was about US$820 million. As the rover is still operating after 4 years, the mission is now being extended till 2009.
 * __Mars Exploration Rover __**

__IT system involved in the Rover__ In order for the Rover to move smoothly on Mars there needs to be a communication system. Rover has a low-gain and high gain antenna. The low gain antenna is an omnidirectional, which transmits radio waves in uniformly on the plane. This data is transmitted at a low rate to Deep Space network (DSN) antennas on Earth. The high gain antenna is directional and steerable and can transmit data to Earth at a higher rate. On top of this, the rover has various sensors that allow them to gather data about the surface of the Earth. Panoramic Camera: Determines the texture, color, mineralogy and structure of the local terrain. Navigation Camera: Has higher field of view but the resolution that it gives is much lower than Panormaic view. It is usually used for navigation and driving.

__Advantage__ The obvious advantage of the Mars Exploration Rover is that it allows people to explore stars that may be difficult for person to actually go and research, e.g. Mars; this enables us to bigger picture of the wider space and composition of other planets. Even though the Mars is thought to have the closest environment to Earth, it is still very difficult for us to reach there. In the past, we have sent over 30 probes to Mars for exploration to Mars but only one third of them have survived. This suggests that there are still issue of reliability with regarding sending rockets to Mars. Thus, it shows currently it is still not possible for use to send Humans to other stars. The second reason is the cost. Currently, it is costing about a million dollars per pound to design and deliver a robot to Mars, which is much less than sending people to Mars. This is because robots do not require cost such as life supports systems nor worry about coming home. On top of this, robots do not need soft landing position and supply of food. Overall, it takes a minimum of 100,000 pounds of vehicle, equipment, food and water to send the team of astronauts to Mars. This already adds up to 100 billion dollars. The third reason is the engineering challenges. For example, to make a manned mission possible, one likely scenario is to produce for the fuel for return flight from the Martian atmosphere. However, nothing like this has ever been attempted, and it would take a number of test missions to prove out the concept.

__Issues__ One of the issues with regards to the Mars Exploration Rover is the problem of space waste. As I have stated previously, only one-third of the probes sent to Mars has successfully reached there, this suggests that some of the probes still floats in the space as a waste. On top of this, even the Rover that is functioning this moment will eventually become wasted on Mars. If we are to consider the environmental impacts on universal scale, this issue of space waste cannot be neglected. The second issue is the cost. Even though sending Rovers on to Mars is much cheaper than sending astronauts it still consumes substantial amount of money. In fact the initial 90 day mission of the Rover cost over 820 million dollars. These are all covered by the taxes that the citizens pay. On top of this, many of the probes sent to Mars ends up as a failure. Is space exploration worth this much amount of money, when it is such a detached subject from the life on Earth? There is a growing debate with regards to this issue. Between the issues I believe that the issue of cost is more significant as the impact of space rover on the space environment is currently still very little. On the other hand, the economic cost is much more significant as it involves the contribution of individuals. The governments and institutions must clearly state the benefits of space exploration and in order to justify the economic issue that lies with the Mars exploration using Rovers.