A new generation of robotic explorers are going to search for
water on Mars. The rover is a mobile geology lab Mark Adler,
deputy manager on the US space agency (Nasa) mission, talks to
BBC News Online's Helen Briggs about what they might encounter.
HB: How does each rover work? MA: It's a solar powered robot. At
about 9 am it will wake up and by 2-3 pm in the afternoon it
will send back what it has done. It then goes to sleep and our
job begins here on Earth. We have about 19 hours to figure out
the data and send a series of instructions to the rover next
morning. HB: How similar are they to Pathfinder's Sojourner, the
first Martian rover? MA: Pathfinder was quite similar in terms
of its landing system for entry and descent to the surface of
Mars. From that point on it looks a lot different to Pathfinder.
The purpose of that mission overall was a technology
demonstrator, but it did do some good science. Mars Exploration
Rovers (Mer) is a science mission. Once the landers have
delivered the rovers, they are d