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the-south-asian Life & Times Oct - Dec 2011 |
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Cover Story SALT
interviews
From
Battlefield to
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Mars
2011 & Beyond
No other planet in our solar system has captured human imagination as much
as the red planet. Almost 400 million kilometres away, it takes close to ten
months to get there from Planet earth. The terrain is a geological buffet –
mountains, towering craters, long and deep canyons, polar caps, alluvial
fans, and more. There is water too - but not to drink. It is a frozen desert
with evidence of ancient river beds and vast oceans, which indicate a
warmer, wetter past. Yet, the obsession with the Red Planet persists.
Beginning with fly-bys, and then orbiters, the past three decades or more
have witnessed robotic missions using landers and rovers. Most missions to
Mars have been outright failures. Some exploded on the launch pad, some were
lost in space and others simply crashed on touchdown. But the ones that got
there have had stupendous success.
November 25, 2011 will see the launch of a rover - Mars Science Laboratory,
aka Curiosity - larger and more powerful than anything ever sent to the Mars
surface. It will land in Gale Crater sometime in August 2012 and get to work
almost immediately.
Read the entire article in the print edition of The South Asian Life & Times subscribe@the-south-asian.com
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