The Mars Exploration Rovers will be intelligent enough to drive long distances without any help from Earth and will know how to pick their way through a martian landscape full of obstacles. Should something come up that one of the rovers cannot handle alone, it will stop in its tracks and "phone home." Conducting this kind of research is a race against time. Martian dust will slowly build up on the rovers' solar arrays. It will eventually block the energy needed to recharge the batteries that keep the rovers alive.

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The shortest distance between two planets is not a straight line. At least that's the case in the business of spaceflight. The shortest distance is a curved line that takes into account a number of factors, including the orbits of the two planets and the position of each planet within its orbit.

The MER mission takes advantage of a rare close alignment of Earth and Mars in 2003. On June 5, 2003, the first Mars Exploration Rover (MER) spacecraft is scheduled for launch on a Delta II launch vehicle from Cape Canaveral, Florida. It will enter the Martian atmosphere in January, 2004. The second MER craft is scheduled for launch on June 24, 2003.

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Mars is very cold, very dusty, and has a thin atmosphere that is saturated with carbon dioxide gas. Sometimes it gets so cold that the carbon dioxide condenses onto the martian surface. So why do we want to go there? Because Mars wasn't always this way. Thirty years of research in the form of spacecraft flybys, orbiters, and landers has revealed that Mars was once Earthlike. The fingerprint of a water planet lies in its landforms. Large channels and small gullies attest to a history of flowing water. There is the possibility that life may have existed there and might even exist there today.

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This is unofficial presentation of the Mars mission that will be launched by NASA on June 5, 2003. All content is a property of Athena who is Rover MER developer. Site design and Rover 3D model by Suponix.com April 2003.