Galaxy Empire
Troubled Galaxy Destroyed Dreams: Chapter Five
Palash Biswas
http://www.troubled
"THE Eagle has landed" were the words that thrilled the world in 1969 when man arrived on the moon. It all began on that fatal date!
In 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin erected a U.S. flag when they became the first men to land on the moon.
"The Phoenix has landed" were the words announcing the arrival of the Mars space probe yesterday, in a triumph to excite a new generation.
It is once again a US Flag unfurled on the Face of Human Future, Human destiny!
I remember all those exciting school days in Dinesh Pur, in a District Board High school while the news broke about the Man landing on Moon. Way back in 1969. Thamma was alive then. She never believed. She believed in Moon God in accordance with conservative Hindu Mythology. But for us, the younger lot it was a triumph of Science and technology over Nature and all Godly fotrces including colorful myths. We debated a lot on the topic whether science is a boon or curse for Mankind.
Now I know all about the Galaxy Empire and Imperialism, the Global Hegemony and ruling Class. It is not a debate on Science and technology. Rather it is all about Star wars. It is in fact the Real encounter of third dimention which occupies everything on and arount the COSMOS.
Moon Quest thrilled us a lot. Mars Adventure sounds like Colonisation in cosmos.
Phoenix landed gently on thrusters operated by remote control, whereas astronauts guided Eagle down to the moon.
Man travelled to the moon in days. The voyage to Mars took more than nine months. The moon is a rock, whereas Mars once had water. Phoenix will drill into the icy cap to take samples of organic molecules and microbes.
This promises to be another "giant leap for mankind" in our enduring quest to find whether we are alone in the universe.
We may find proof of other life on the mysterious Red Planet.
The physical exploration of the Moon began when Luna 2, a space probe launched by the Soviet Union, impacted the surface of the Moon on September 14, 1959. Prior to that the only available means of exploration had been observation. The invention of the optical telescope brought about the first leap in the quality of lunar observations. Galileo Galilei is generally credited as the first person to use a telescope for astronomical purposes; having made his own telescope in 1609, the mountains and craters on the lunar surface were among his first observations using it.
In 1969, Project Apollo first successfully landed people on the Moon.. They placed scientific experiments there and returned rocks and data that suggested the Moon is of a similar composition to the Earth.
And see, how Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov downplayed his country's placing of the national flag under the ice at the North Pole, saying it was not meant to signal Russia's claim to the Arctic.Interest in the region is intensifying because global warming is shrinking the polar ice, and that could someday open up resource development and new shipping lanes.
A Russian scientific expedition deposited a rustproof titanium version of country's flag on the seabed at the pole last year. The act heated up the controversy over an area that a U.S. study suggests may contain as much as 25 per cent of the world's undiscovered oil and gas.
"It should be seen basically the same way as the American flag was planted on the moon sometime ago," Lavrov said Tuesday
Under the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, Arctic nations have 10 years after ratification to prove their claims under the largely uncharted polar ice pack. All countries with claims to the Arctic have ratified the treaty, except the United States.Canada has announced plans to build a new army training centre and a deep-water port in Arctic waters. Norway, the United States and Denmark also have claims in the vast region.
Sonner or later, in near future, we have to witness the Arctic Fight escalated Galaxywide!
Why not?
Under the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, Arctic nations have 10 years after ratification to prove their claims under the largely uncharted polar ice pack. All countries with claims to the Arctic have ratified the treaty, except the United States.
Canada has announced plans to build a new army training centre and a deep-water port in Arctic waters. Norway, the United States and Denmark also have claims in the vast region.
Denmark is gathering scientific evidence to show that the Lomonosov Ridge, a 2,000-kilometre underwater mountain range, is attached to Greenland, making it a geological extension of the sparsely populated giant island that is a semi-autonomous Danish territory.
A UN panel is supposed to decide the Arctic control by 2020.
Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn is representing Canada at the meeting on the Arctic this week in Ilulissat, Greenland. Officials from Denmark, Norway, Russia and the United States will also be there.
Can you create a power base strong enough to unite the galaxy and begin a new golden age? That's the task that lies before you in Fantasy Flight Games' epic ....Eradicate the numerously superior heretic alien forces that threaten the Empire. The word and force of the Emperor still rules the galaxy.The Empire's faceless soldiers may have the worst aim in a galaxy far, far away, but what happens when the ones who survive a battle against the Rebellion ..."Star Wars" and "The Empire Strikes Back" had hit it big, but they were set in a galaxy far, far away and had mythic overtones. ...... far away galaxy where George Lucas staged his epic space operas. But will the empire truly strike a victory for science education? For more than 1000 years, Shi'ite Islam has, in fact, been a galaxy of Shi'isms - a kind of Fourth World of its own, always cursed by political exclusion ...As a battle-scarred era nears its end, a shattering power play is about to stun the entire galaxy . . . and set in motion events that will alter destinies ...Giant robots fighting it out for the sake of the galaxy! What's not to like??
Phoenix is the latest in a long list of NASA missions to Mars that started back in the 1960s. Along with the Moon, Mars embodied the race to space when the US and the Soviet Union vied to become the first to land on the Red Planet.
To date, there has been a a total of 38 missions to Mars, emanating from the US, Russia, Japan and Europe. Only three probes have successfully landed on the planet. The first exploitable pictures came from a 1971 NASA mission. But it was the Soviet probes Mars 4 and Mars 5, two years later, which revealed the presence of CO2 and ozone in Mars' atmosphere.
In 1976, the US secured its own close-up shots of the face of Mars, its mountains, volcanoes and even some clouds. The following probe Viking 2 went further, showing the scars left by massive floods.
Twenty one years later, the search for life on Mars continued with NASA's Pathfinder probe and its Sojourner vehicle, a four-wheel drive meant to explore and take photos of the planet's surface.
A few months later, in September 1997, NASA's Mars Global Surveyor reached the Red Planet after a 10-month journey. It succeeded in sending more than 240,000 pictures back to Earth. These included shots of a massive sand storm, confirming the presence of water clouds and ice on Mars.
A few years later, the European Space Agency made a breakthrough with its Mars Express probe, which beamed back pictures of what appears to be a sea of ice - a kind of Martian permafrost.
Today, NASA's twin robots Opportunity and Spirit - which landed in early 2004 - continue to scour the Red Planet in search of signs of water.
Meanwhile, beneath the surface, the quest for signs of life also goes on with the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. It has sent some impressive footage, which Mars fans will have to make do with as there are no plans of sending a man to the Red Planet anytime before the 2020's.
MADISYN, 8, at left, and Mason Parisi, 6, use an interactive screen Tuesday to explore a virtual science outpost on the moon at a special NASA exhibit in Bristol. The traveling exhibit, which will be open today and Thursday from 3 to 7 p.m. at the Imagine Nation Museum, allows visitors to examine a moon rock and take a peek into NASA's plans for returning humans to the moon. Madisyn and Mason, who live in Bristol, are being watched by their mother, Jennifer. Marlene Ocasio of Bristol and her children, Annaliz, 2, and Marcos, 5, are at right. (ROSS TAYLOR / May 27, 2008)
The moon may be 238,000 miles from Earth, but a NASA exhibit currently at the Imagine Nation Museum is helping to bring it a whole lot closer.
The traveling exhibit, on display at the museum through Thursday, allows visitors to take a peek into NASA's future plans for lunar exploration and even examine a moon rock.
The exhibit, titled the "NASA Exploration Experience," is housed in a large trailer and features a presentation on NASA's goal of returning humans to the moon by 2020.
The roughly 10-minute presentation uses a variety of ways to showcase NASA's plan. Beyond the moon rock, highlights include an interactive screen that allows visitors to examine a lunar-science station and a video room that simulates a trip to the moon.
We could never imagine all about this. Our Fairy Tales would never visualise the Galaxy in Virtual Reality !
You are an intergalactic ruler, who on a single planet starts. Mit der Zeit kannst du höhere Technologien entwickeln und verschiedene Strategien verfolgen: Ob du der Schrecken der Galaxie mit einer gigantischen Flotte wirst oder aber eine Verteidigung aufbaust, welche kalt lächelnd die Trümmer gegnerischer Schiffe vom Himmel regnen lässt, liegt ganz bei dir. By the time you can develop better technologies and different strategies: Whether you are the horrors of the galaxy with a giant fleet will, or a defence aufbaust the cold smile the rubble enemy ships can rain from the sky, is up to you. Erweitere dein Imperium, indem du weitere Kolonien besiedelst; treibe Handel mit anderen Spielern oder führe Krieg; schließe Bündnisse oder unterjoche deine Nachbarschaft mit harter Hand. Expand your empire, by more besiedelst colonies, trade goods with other players or bring war; join alliances or enslave your neighbourhood with hard hands!
In the future, the survival of humanity stands on the edge of utter ruin as three powerful factions vie for control of the galaxy. Take command of one of three space-faring races as you work to establish your domination of the galaxy in Sins of a Solar Empire. Through a combination of diplomacy, economic skill, cultural influence, and sheer military might you will establish order over your corner of the galaxy!
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: `The Galactic Empire is one of the main factions in the Star Wars universe. It is a tyrannical, galaxy-spanning regime established by the series' lead villain, Palpatine, to replace the Galactic Republic in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. The Galactic Empire is introduced in A New Hope. The Empire also appears in The Empire Strikes Back, and in Return of the Jedi.
The Empire's origins are explained in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, where it replaces the Galactic Republic in the midst of a crisis orchestrated by Palpatine, then the Republic's Supreme Chancellor. In a scene towards the end of the film, Palpatine appoints himself Emperor in the presence of the Galactic Senate, afterwards the Imperial Senate. By the time of A New Hope, the Empire has transformed into a totalitarian regime, still struggling with the Rebel Alliance.'
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia : `Galactic empires are a common theme in science fiction. Many authors have either used a galaxy-spanning empire as background, or written about the growth or decline of such an empire. The capital of a galactic empire is frequently a core world or home world. Some of these empires are based on the Roman Empire; the Galactic Empire of Isaac Asimov's Foundation series (which inspired empires of later writers and film-makers) being an obvious example, as is the Terran Empire of Poul Anderson's Dominic Flandry[citation needed].
The events in Frank Herbert's "Dune" universe, where hitherto disregarded desert-dwellers create a powerful new religion and burst out to topple an old empire and build a new one, are clearly modeled on the rise of Islam (all the more obvious since the languge of the Fremen is clearly descended from Arabic).
The best known to the general public today is probably the empire from Star Wars, which was formed in turn from the Galactic Republic.
Most of these galaxy-spanning domains depend on some form of transportation capable of quickly or instantly crossing vast cosmic distances (usually measured in light-years)
The term "galactic empire" has, no doubt because of association with the Empire from Star Wars, gained an unfavorable reputation. However, the Galactic Empires from Foundation and the CoDominium universe are relatively benign organizations.'
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
`The Moon (Latin: Luna) is Earth's only natural satellite and the fifth largest natural satellite in the Solar System.
The average centre-to-centre distance from the Earth to the Moon is 384,403 km, about thirty times the diameter of the Earth. The Moon's diameter is 3,474 km,[6] a little more than a quarter that of the Earth. This means that the Moon's volume is about 2 percent that of Earth and the pull of gravity at its surface about 17 percent that of the Earth. The Moon makes a complete orbit around the Earth every 27.3 days (the orbital period), and the periodic variations in the geometry of the Earth–Moon–Sun system are responsible for the lunar phases that repeat every 29.5 days (the synodic period).
The Moon is the only celestial body to which humans have travelled and upon which humans have landed. The first artificial object to escape Earth's gravity and pass near the Moon was the Soviet Union's Luna 1, the first artificial object to impact the lunar surface was Luna 2, and the first photographs of the normally occluded far side of the Moon were made by Luna 3, all in 1959. The first spacecraft to perform a successful lunar soft landing was Luna 9, and the first unmanned vehicle to orbit the Moon was Luna 10, both in 1966.[6] The United States (U.S.) Apollo program achieved the only manned missions to date, resulting in six landings between 1969 and 1972. Human exploration of the Moon ceased with the conclusion of the Apollo program, although several countries have announced plans to send people or robotic spacecraft to the Moon.'
`In the philosophy of Aristotle, the heavens, starting at the Moon, were the realm of perfection, the sublunary region was the realm of change and corruption, and any resemblance between these regions was strictly ruled out. Aristotle himself suggested that the Moon partook perhaps of some contamination from the realm of corruption.[
The medieval followers of Aristotle, in the Islamic world and then in Christian Europe, tried to make sense of the lunar spots in Aristotelian terms.[1] Thomas Harriot, as well as Galilei, drew the first telescopic representation of the Moon and observed it for several years. His drawings, however, remained unpublished.
Space race
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
The Cold War-inspired space race between the Soviet Union and the United States of America accelerated with a focus on the Moon. This included many scientifically important firsts, such as the first photographs of the until then unseen far side of the moon in 1959 by the Soviet Union, and culminated with the landing of the first humans on the moon in 1969, widely seen around the world as one of the pivotal events of the 20th century, and indeed of human history in general.
Landing map of Apollo, Surveyor and Luna missions.
Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt standing next to a boulder at Taurus-Littrow during the third EVA (extravehicular activity). NASA photo.The first man-made object to reach the Moon was the unmanned Soviet probe Luna 2, which made a hard landing on September 14, 1959, at 21:02:24 Z. The far side of the Moon was first photographed on October 7, 1959 by the Soviet probe Luna 3. In an effort to compete with these Soviet successes, U.S. President John F. Kennedy proposed the national goal of landing a man on the Moon. Speaking to a Joint Session of Congress on May 25, 1961, he said
"First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space."[3]
The Soviets nonetheless remained in the lead for some time. Luna 9 was the first probe to soft land on the Moon and transmit pictures from the Lunar surface on February 3, 1966. It was proven that a lunar lander would not sink into a thick layer of dust, as had been feared. The first artificial satellite of the Moon was the Soviet probe Luna 10 (launched March 31, 1966). One of the main impediments to human exploration of the Moon was development of adequate heat shield technology to permit atmospheric re-entry without completely burning up a manned spacecraft. The U.S. gained early supremacy in this field through NASA research in thermogravimetric experiments in hypersonic wind tunnels.
On December 24, 1968, the crew of Apollo 8, Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders became the first human beings to see the far side of the Moon with their own eyes (as opposed to seeing it on a photograph). Humans first landed on the Moon on July 20, 1969. The first man to walk on the lunar surface was Neil Armstrong, commander of the U.S. mission Apollo 11. The first robot lunar rover to land on the Moon was the Soviet vessel Lunokhod 1 on November 17, 1970 as part of the Lunokhod program. The last man to stand on the Moon was Eugene Cernan, who as part of the mission Apollo 17 walked on the Moon in December 1972. See also: A full list of lunar Apollo astronauts.
Moon rock samples were brought back to Earth by three Luna missions (Luna 16, 20, and 24) and the Apollo missions 11 through 17 (excepting Apollo 13, which aborted its planned lunar landing).
From the mid-1960's to the mid-1970's there were 65 moon landings (with 10 in 1971 alone), but after Luna 24 in 1976 they suddenly stopped. The Soviet Union started focusing on Venus and space stations and the U.S. on Mars and beyond.
[edit] Recent exploration
In 1990 Japan visited the moon with the Hiten spacecraft, becoming the third country to orbit the moon. The spacecraft released the Hagormo probe into lunar orbit, but the transmitter failed, thereby preventing further scientific use of the mission. In September 2007, the SELENE spacecraft was launched, with the objectives "to obtain scientific data of the lunar origin and evolution and to develop the technology for the future lunar exploration"
NASA launched the Clementine mission in 1994, and Lunar Prospector in 1998.
In 1998, HGS-1, a commercial satellite from Hong Kong, China, performed two flybys of the moon in order to change orbital inclination.
The European Space Agency launched a small, low-cost lunar orbital probe called SMART 1 on September 27, 2003. SMART 1's primary goal was to take three-dimensional X-ray and infrared imagery of the lunar surface. SMART 1 entered lunar orbit on November 15, 2004 and continued to make observations until September 3, 2006, when it was intentionally crashed into the lunar surface in order to study the impact plume.[5]
The People's Republic of China has begun the Chang'e program for exploring the Moon and is investigating the prospect of lunar mining, specifically looking for the isotope helium-3 for use as an energy source on Earth.[6] China launched the Chang'e 1 robotic lunar orbiter on 2007-10-24.
[edit] Future plans
See also: List of future lunar missions
India's Chandrayaan-
Chang'e 1 spacecraftOn 2004-01-14, US President George W. Bush announced the Vision for Space Exploration, a plan leading to new manned lunar missions by 2020. NASA's plan to accomplish that goal was announced on March 19, 2005,[7] and was promptly dubbed "Apollo 2.0" by critics. A preliminary unmanned mission, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, is scheduled for launch in 2008. LRO will take high resolution imagery of the moon's surface and will carry the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS), which will investigate the possible existence of water in Shackleton crater.
China plans to land a rover on the moon in 2012, and to conduct a sample return mission in 2017. China has entered into an agreement to work with Russia to eventually land astronauts on the moon before 2020.[8]
Japan has rescheduled LUNAR-A possibly before 2010.[9] Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) plans a manned lunar landing around 2020 that would lead to a manned lunar base by 2030; however, there is no budget yet for this project.[10]
India expects to launch Chandrayaan, an unmanned lunar orbiter, by April 2008. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) also plans to undertake a totally indigenous manned space exploration in the next decade by planning to send a person to space by 2014 and to have a person walk on the moon by 2020.[11]
Russia also announced to resume its previously frozen project Luna-Glob, an unmanned lander and orbiter, which is slated to launch in 2012.[12]
Germany also announced in March 2007 that it will launch a national lunar orbiter, LEO in 2012.[13]
In August 2007, NASA stated that all future missions and explorations of the moon will be done entirely using the metric system. This was done to improve cooperation with space agencies of other countries which already use the metric system.[14]
The European Space Agency has also announced its intention to send a manned mission to the Moon, as part of the Aurora programme.
On September 13, 2007, the X Prize Foundation, in concert with Google, Inc., announced the Google Lunar X Prize. This contest requires competitors "to land a privately funded robotic rover on the Moon that is capable of completing several mission objectives, including roaming the lunar surface for at least 500 meters and sending video, images and data back to the Earth.."[15]
Mars
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mars (pronounced ['m??rz] (help·info)) is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after Mars, the Roman god of war. It is also referred to as the "Red Planet" because of its reddish appearance as seen from Earth.
Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin atmosphere, having surface features reminiscent both of the impact craters of the Moon and the volcanoes, valleys, deserts and polar ice caps of Earth. It is the site of Olympus Mons, the highest known mountain in the Solar System, and of Valles Marineris, the largest canyon. In addition to its geographical features, Mars' rotational period and seasonal cycles are likewise similar to those of Earth.
Until the first flyby of Mars by Mariner 4 in 1965, it was speculated that there might be liquid water on the planet's surface. This was based on observations of periodic variations in light and dark patches, particularly in the polar latitudes, which looked like seas and continents, while long, dark striations were interpreted by some observers as irrigation channels for liquid water. These straight line features were later proven not to exist and were instead explained as optical illusions. Still, of all the planets in our Solar System other than Earth, Mars is the most likely to harbor liquid water, and perhaps life.[citation needed]
Mars is currently host to three functional orbiting spacecraft: Mars Odyssey, Mars Express, and Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. This is more than any planet in the Solar System except Earth. The surface is also home to the two Mars Exploration Rovers (Spirit and Opportunity)
Mars has two moons, Phobos and Deimos, which are small and irregularly shaped. These may be captured asteroids, similar to 5261 Eureka, a Martian Trojan asteroid. Mars can be seen from Earth with the naked eye. Its apparent magnitude reaches -2.9,[4] a brightness surpassed only by Venus, the Moon, and the Sun, though most of the time Jupiter will appear brighter to the naked eye than Mars.
Exploration
Main article: Exploration of Mars
Viking Lander 1 siteDozens of spacecraft, including orbiters, landers, and rovers, have been sent to Mars by the Soviet Union, the United States, Europe, and Japan to study the planet's surface, climate, and geology.
Roughly two-thirds of all spacecraft destined for Mars have failed in one manner or another before completing or even beginning their missions. While this high failure rate can be ascribed to technical problems, enough have either failed or lost communications for causes unknown for some to search for other explanations. Examples include an Earth-Mars "Bermuda Triangle", a Mars Curse, or even the long-standing NASA in-joke, the "Great Galactic Ghoul" that feeds on Martian spacecraft.[
[edit] Past missions
The first successful fly-by mission to Mars was NASA's Mariner 4, launched in 1964. The first successful objects to land on the surface were two Soviet probes, Mars 2 and Mars 3 from the Mars probe program, launched in 1971, but both lost contact within seconds of landing. Then came the 1975 NASA launches of the Viking program, which consisted of two orbiters, each having a lander; both landers successfully touched down in 1976 and remained operational for 6 and 3 years, for Viking 1 and Viking 2 respectively. The Viking landers relayed the first color pictures of Mars[71] and also mapped the surface of Mars so well that the images are still sometimes used to this day. The Soviet probes Phobos 1 and 2 were sent to Mars in 1988 to study Mars and its two moons, unfortunately Phobos 1 lost contact on the way to Mars, and Phobos 2, while successfully photographing Mars and Phobos, failed just before it was set to release two landers on Phobos's surface.
Following the 1992 failure of the Mars Observer orbiter, NASA launched the Mars Global Surveyor in 1996. This mission was a complete success, having finished its primary mapping mission in early 2001. Contact was lost with the probe in November 2006 during its third extended program, spending exactly 10 operational years in space. Only a month after the launch of the Surveyor, NASA launched the Mars Pathfinder, carrying a robotic exploration vehicle Sojourner, which landed in the Ares Vallis on Mars. This mission was another big success, and received much publicity, partially due to the many spectacular images that were sent back to Earth.[72]
[edit] Current missions
Spirit's lander on MarsIn 2001 NASA launched the successful Mars Odyssey orbiter, which is still in orbit as of March 2008, and the ending date has been extended to September 2008. Odyssey's Gamma Ray Spectrometer detected significant amounts of hydrogen in the upper metre or so of Mars's regolith. This hydrogen is thought to be contained in large deposits of water ice.[73]
In 2003, the ESA launched the Mars Express craft, consisting of the Mars Express Orbiter and the lander Beagle 2. Beagle 2 failed during descent and was declared lost in early February 2004.[74] In early 2004 the Planetary Fourier Spectrometer team announced it had detected methane in the Martian atmosphere. ESA announced in June 2006 the discovery of aurorae on Mars.[75]
Also in 2003, NASA launched the twin Mars Exploration Rovers named Spirit (MER-A) and Opportunity (MER-B). Both missions landed successfully in January 2004 and have met or exceeded all their targets. Among the most significant scientific returns has been conclusive evidence that liquid water existed at some time in the past at both landing sites. Martian dust devils and windstorms have occasionally cleaned both rovers' solar panels, and thus increased their lifespan.[76]
On August 12, 2005 the NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter probe was launched toward the planet, arriving in orbit on March 10, 2006 to conduct a two-year science survey. The orbiter will map the Martian terrain and weather to find suitable landing sites for upcoming lander missions. It also contains an improved telecommunications link to Earth, with more bandwidth than all previous missions combined.
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter snapped the first image of a series of active avalanches near the planet's north pole, scientists said March 3, 2008.[77]
A prototype of the Phoenix lander practices robotic arm control at a test site in Death Valley.The most recent mission to Mars, not counting the brief flyby by the Dawn spacecraft to Ceres and Vesta, is the NASA Phoenix Mars lander, which launched August 4, 2007 and arrived on the north polar region of Mars on May 25, 2008[78]. The lander has a robotic arm with a 2.5 m reach and capable of digging a meter into the Martian soil. The lander will be in an area with an 80% chance of ice being less than 30 cm below the surface, and has a microscopic camera capable of resolving to one-thousandth the width of a human hair.[79]
[edit] Future missions
Phoenix will be followed by the Mars Science Laboratory in 2009, a bigger, faster (90 m/hour), and smarter version of the Mars Exploration Rovers. Experiments include a laser chemical sample that can deduce the make-up of rocks at a distance of 13 m.[80]
The joint Russian and Chinese Phobos-Grunt sample-return mission, to return samples of Mars's moon Phobos, is scheduled for a 2009 launch. In 2012 the ESA plans to launch its first Rover to Mars, the ExoMars rover will be capable of drilling 2 m into the soil in search of organic molecules.[81]
The Finnish-Russian MetNet mission will consist of sending tens of small landers on the Martian surface in order to establish a wide-spread surface observation network to investigate the planet's atmospheric structure, physics and meteorology.
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