The Mighty Mars Rovers: The Incredible Adventures of Spirit and Opportunity

85 Pages·2012·222.08 MB·English

by  Elizabeth Rusch

R $18.99 / HIGHER IN CANADA
U
S THE MIGHTY MARS ROVERS
C
T H Five, four, three, two, one . . . liftoff!

he award-winning freelance writer
On June 10, 2003, a little go-cart-size rover named
T
Elizabeth Rusch has published H Spirit blasted off on a rocket headed for Mars. Less
E
more than one hundred articles in M than a month later, on July 7, a twin rover named
Opportunity soared through the solar system, hot
magazines such as Muse, Smithsonian, IG The Incredible Adventures of Spirit and Opportunity on her tail. The two little robots landed halfway
H
and Mother Jones. She is the author of a T across the planet from each other. But the twins
number of award-winning nonfiction Y had a common goal: to find out if Mars ever had
M water that could have supported life.
titles for children, including Generation A The rovers wouldn’t have long to complete their
R
Fix, Will It Blow?, The Planet Hunter, and S mission. Mars is a frigid, harsh planet—airless

For the Love of Music: The Remarkable R and constantly bombarded with deadly radiation.
O
Totally dependent on solar power, which is scarce
Story of Maria Anna Mozart. V
E during Martian winters, Spirit and Opportunity
R
Elizabeth lives in Portland, Oregon, were expected to survive for three months.
S
with her family. She has a four-inch- T Instead, in what may well be the most successful
h space mission ever, the rovers have explored the
high scale model rover, which e
red planet for more than six years. Opportunity
I
n
she kept next to her computer for c has driven farther than anyone can believe, and
r
e Spirit survived so many impossible situations that
inspiration while writing this book.
d
i engineers call her “the Indiana Jones of Mars.”
The model rover toppled over and b
le In this thrilling installment to the acclaimed
broke so many times that she can’t A Scientists in the Field series, The Mighty Mars Rovers
d
tells the greatest space robot adventure of all time
believe Spirit and Opportunity have v
e
through the eyes—and heart—of Steven Squyres,
n
survived roaming Mars for more tu professor of astronomy at Cornell University and
than six years. You can visit Elizabeth re lead scientist on the mission. Readers follow Steve
s D
online at WWW.ELIZABETHRUSCH.COM. o L as he sweats through the rovers’ dramatic landings,
f puzzle with him and his team as they figure out
S E
how to make delicate rovers explore deep craters
p I
i F and travel up the sides of jagged mountains, and
r
i worry as Spirit and Opportunity find themselves
t
a E in grave danger.
n H
d The Mighty Mars Rovers captures not only
T
O the triumph of the mission but also the
p N very human emotions Steve and his
p I team felt during their adventures
o
with Spirit and Opportunity, the
r S
t “never-give-up, never-say-die” robots.
u T
n S
i I
t
y T
N
E FRONT COVER: Photograph
A JUNIOR LIBRARY GUILD SELECTION H I © 2011 by NASA/JPL
O
U C FRONT FLAP: Photograph
Houghton Mifflin $1I8S.B9N9 :/ 9H7I8G-H0-E5R4 I7N-4 C7A88N1A-4DA 1439 GHTO S P©BAh C2o0Kt1o C1gO rbVaypE NhR: A ©S A2011 by
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HARCOURT 105 N M NASA/JPL-Caltech/
www.hmhbooks.com IF By Elizabeth Rusch Cornell
F BACK FLAP:
LI Photograph © 2011
N
NASA/JPL-Caltech
R $18.99 / HIGHER IN CANADA
U
S THE MIGHTY MARS ROVERS
C
T H Five, four, three, two, one . . . liftoff!

he award-winning freelance writer
On June 10, 2003, a little go-cart-size rover named
T
Elizabeth Rusch has published H Spirit blasted off on a rocket headed for Mars. Less
E
more than one hundred articles in M than a month later, on July 7, a twin rover named
Opportunity soared through the solar system, hot
magazines such as Muse, Smithsonian, IG The Incredible Adventures of Spirit and Opportunity on her tail. The two little robots landed halfway
H
and Mother Jones. She is the author of a T across the planet from each other. But the twins
number of award-winning nonfiction Y had a common goal: to find out if Mars ever had
M water that could have supported life.
titles for children, including Generation A The rovers wouldn’t have long to complete their
R
Fix, Will It Blow?, The Planet Hunter, and S mission. Mars is a frigid, harsh planet—airless

For the Love of Music: The Remarkable R and constantly bombarded with deadly radiation.
O
Totally dependent on solar power, which is scarce
Story of Maria Anna Mozart. V
E during Martian winters, Spirit and Opportunity
R
Elizabeth lives in Portland, Oregon, were expected to survive for three months.
S
with her family. She has a four-inch- T Instead, in what may well be the most successful
h space mission ever, the rovers have explored the
high scale model rover, which e
red planet for more than six years. Opportunity
I
n
she kept next to her computer for c has driven farther than anyone can believe, and
r
e Spirit survived so many impossible situations that
inspiration while writing this book.
d
i engineers call her “the Indiana Jones of Mars.”
The model rover toppled over and b
le In this thrilling installment to the acclaimed
broke so many times that she can’t A Scientists in the Field series, The Mighty Mars Rovers
d
tells the greatest space robot adventure of all time
believe Spirit and Opportunity have v
e
through the eyes—and heart—of Steven Squyres,
n
survived roaming Mars for more tu professor of astronomy at Cornell University and
than six years. You can visit Elizabeth re lead scientist on the mission. Readers follow Steve
s D
online at WWW.ELIZABETHRUSCH.COM. o L as he sweats through the rovers’ dramatic landings,
f puzzle with him and his team as they figure out
S E
how to make delicate rovers explore deep craters
p I
i F and travel up the sides of jagged mountains, and
r
i worry as Spirit and Opportunity find themselves
t
a E in grave danger.
n H
d The Mighty Mars Rovers captures not only
T
O the triumph of the mission but also the
p N very human emotions Steve and his
p I team felt during their adventures
o
with Spirit and Opportunity, the
r S
t “never-give-up, never-say-die” robots.
u T
n S
i I
t
y T
N
E FRONT COVER: Photograph
A JUNIOR LIBRARY GUILD SELECTION H I © 2011 by NASA/JPL
O
U C FRONT FLAP: Photograph
Houghton Mifflin $1I8S.B9N9 :/ 9H7I8G-H0-E5R4 I7N-4 C7A88N1A-4DA 1439 GHTO S P©BAh C2o0Kt1o C1gO rbVaypE NhR: A ©S A2011 by
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HARCOURT 105 N M NASA/JPL-Caltech/
www.hmhbooks.com IF By Elizabeth Rusch Cornell
F BACK FLAP:
LI Photograph © 2011
N
NASA/JPL-Caltech
THE MIGHTY MARS ROVERS
2
THE MIGHTY MARS ROVERS
Spirit Opportunity
The Incredible Adventures of and
By Elizabeth Rusch
Houghton Mifflin Books for Children
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Boston New York 2012
Copyright © 2012 by Elizabeth Rusch
CONTENTS
All rights reserved. For information about permission to reproduce selections
from this book, write to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing
Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, New York 10003.
Houghton Mifflin Books for Children is an imprint of
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
www.hmhbooks.com
Design by Ellen Nygaard
The text of this book is set in Proforma.
Photo and illustration credits on pages 78–79.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rusch, Elizabeth.
The mighty Mars rovers : the incredible adventures of Spirit and Opportunity /
by Elizabeth Rusch.
p. cm. — (Scientists in the Field) (Houghton Mifflin Books for Children)
ISBN 978-0-547-47881-4
1. Mars (Planet)—Exploration—Juvenile literature. 2. Roving vehicles (Astronau-
tics)—Juvenile literature. 3. Mars probes—Juvenile literature. I. Title.
QB641.R87 2012
523.43—dc23
2011012159
Author’s Note:
ON THE USE OF PRONOUNS FOR THE ROVERS
As an inanimate object, a Mars rover would generally be referred to as “it.”
The scientists and engineers who work on the rovers commonly refer to them
as “she.” For a more gender-balanced usage and to help readers distinguish
between the two rovers, the author has decided to refer to Spirit as “she” and
Opportunity as “he.”
Manufactured in China
LEO 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
4500343728
For Craig
CONTENTS
MARS EXPLORATION ROVER MISSION 7 7. THE PROBLEM WITH COURAGE 52
1. MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 8 8. A BROKEN SPIRIT 56
2. THE MAKING OF THE MARS ROVERS 14 9. OPPORTUNITY’S LAST STAND? 62
What’s in a Name? 20 Wet Mars 66
3. ARE WE REALLY ON MARS? 24 10. FREE SPIRIT 68
Naming Names 28
11. MISSION MORE THAN ACCOMPLISHED! 72
How to Drive a Rover 28
Curiosity Continues 74
Chatting with the Rovers 30
Mission Update 76
4. HITTING THE DUSTY TRAIL 34
Sources 76
Living on Martian Time 38
Chapter Notes 76
Driving Without a Driver 39
For Further Exploration 78
Acknowledgments 78
5. CAN OPPORTUNITY CLIMB DOWN? 40
Glossary 79
Pink Pools 45
Index 80
6. CAN SPIRIT CLIMB UP? 46
Sucked into Science
47
This view of Mars was
captured by the Hubble
Space Telescope.
Mars Exploration Rover Mission
Earth year: 2004
Explorers: Twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity
Leader: Steven Squyres, principal science investigator
Goal: To seek evidence that Mars once had water that could have supported life
Duration of the mission: Three months, maybe more . . .
The Search for Life on Mars
Are Martians real? As silly as it may seem, this question has driven Mars exploration for
decades. People all over the world yearn to know: Is there life on Mars? If not, has there
ever been life on Mars?
No one is seriously searching for green people with wobbly arms and bug eyes.
If such creatures existed, we’d likely have found evidence of them by now. Instead,
scientists are looking for much smaller, nearly invisible life forms—tiny creatures like
bacteria and amoebae.
Why do so many people care about whether microscopic blobs have ever made a
home on Mars, especially if they’re not even alive anymore? Martians like these aren’t
going to invade our planet or steal our brains.
We care because we wonder: Did the miracle of life happen only once, here on
Earth? Or is life something that can happen anytime the conditions are right? If some
kind of living things, even very tiny creatures, once lived on Mars, then imagine what
else may be living out there on the millions of billions of planets in our vast universe.
No life form known to us today can exist without water. So our search for life
begins with the search for water . . .
7
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landing had much to do with him. “I loved watching it,” he said. “But it was something
people on television did. I didn’t see it as something I could do.”
Young Steve stands
on top of a mountain
near a pile of rocks.
Steve Squyres, age eight,
gets his first telescope for
Christmas.
At age nine, Steve tries to build his first robot.
8