Mars Polar Lander

• Scheduled to land ~ 3 PM Friday 3 Dec.

  • See WWW for live NASA feed during landing
• Focus is on water
  • necessary ingredient for life
  • there is intriguing evidence for extensive water early on
    • pervasive “flow” channels, red (oxidized) rocks, moist basalt composition of Mars meteorite, possible “shorelines”
  • the polar ice caps contain considerable frozen water
  • perhaps there is trapped sub-surface frozen water elsewhere
    • “mud flows” seen only around Martian craters
  • site selected at edge of S. polar cap Newsweek figure
    • near frozen water icecap
    • currently springtime there
      • carbon dioxide ice is evaporating
        • driving seasonal winds
      • previous landing sites (Viking, Pathfinder) closer to equator

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