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Mars under attack

© Rodolfo Astrada

Roughly every two years, the orbital motions of Earth and Mars align the planets on the same side of the Sun, making for the closest possible approach. Since orbital geometries are neither circular nor perfectly aligned, and there are wobbles induced by attraction of other planets, the minimum distance varies from one encounter to another. Last August 2003 opposition - as this situation is technically known - was the closest one in the last 50,000 years thus spawning a brief Mars mania.

Oppositions are natural opportunities for space missions destined to the Red Planet, for they minimize travel time and required fuel, thus lowering spacecraft size and cost. The 2003 season was no exception and included three landers and a new orbiter joining forces with two already in operation.

Roving and poking

It is probably fresh in everybody's memory the spectacular success of the 1997 Pathfinder mission and the Sojourner little charming rover. This time, not one but two larger (174 kg. against Sojourner's 11 kg.) and more capable vehicles - named Spirit and Opportunity after a NASA - LEGO Co. contest won by 8 year old adopted Russian orphan Sofi Collis - are prospecting areas chosen after a painstaking process of selection targeted to the best foreseeable scientific return. The european Beagle 2 lander for its part, trades mobility for an impressive analytical capability provided by a score of experiments designed to sniff traces of life.

NASA's rolling vehicles and the European Space Agency stationary probe reflect each organization's approach to Mars exploration. After the failure of former NASA head Daniel Goldin paradigm of faster cheaper missions, the Agency is pursuing a more cautious long term strategy. Fast, cheap projects (in relative terms, we are talking hundreds of million dollars) indulged in corner cutting, namely, understaffing and abbreviated review procedures. A complex space project involves substantial technical risks. Errors may easily crop up as happened in 1999 when Mars Climate Observer plunged into the Martian atmosphere instead of parking in orbit, because of a mile/kilometer conversion mistake. This may look in perspective as an unacceptable blunder, given the money and effort at stake. But in all fairness, it is also true that project teams are manned by highly skilled outstanding scientists and professionals. That it did happen only points to the fact that cheap and fast implies good luck as part of the equation, and this does not always cut it. The triple 1999 failure of Mars Polar Lander and two Deep Space microprobes are still unexplained except for the fact that it was also a fast and cheap project.

NASA - JPL

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