Question

Which of the following is reported to have found in March, 2015 biologically useful nitrogen on Mars?
1. Mangalyaan
2. Mars Express
3. Phoenix Mars Lander
4. Curiosity Rover

Answer 1

Correct Answer - Option 4 : Curiosity Rover

The correct answer is Curiosity Rover.

• Curiosity Rover
  • The Mars Science Laboratory and its rover centerpiece, Curiosity, is the most ambitious Mars mission yet flown by NASA.
  • The rover landed on Mars in 2012 with a primary mission to find out if Mars was suitable for life and made information available that there is the presence of biologically useful Nitrogen.
  • Another objective is to learn more about the Red Planet's environment.
  • In March 2018, it celebrated 2,000 sols (Mars days) on the planet, making its way from Gale Crater to Aeolis Mons, where it has looked at geological information embedded in the mountain's layers.
  • Along the way, it also has found extensive evidence of past water and geological change.
  • One thing that makes Curiosity stand out is its sheer size: Curiosity is about the size of a small SUV.
  • It is 9 feet 10 inches long by 9 feet 1 inch wide (3 m by 2.8 m) and about 7 feet high (2.1 m).
  • It weighs 2,000 lbs. (900 kilograms). Curiosity's wheels have a 20-inch (50.8 cm) diameter.

• Mangalyaan
  • Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) which is also known as Mangalyaan is an unmanned mission to Mars that is India’s first interplanetary spacecraft.
  • The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched the Mars Orbiter Mission on November 5, 2013, using its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on Sriharikota Island, Andhra Pradesh state.
  • The Indian government approved the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) project in August 2012, a mere 15 months before launch.
  • ISRO was able to keep mission costs down by basing MOM’s design on that of Chandrayaan-1, India’s first Moon probe.
  • Because the PSLV did not have the power to place the 1,350-kg (3,000-pound) probe on a direct trajectory.
  • The spacecraft used low-power thrusters to raise its orbit over a period of four weeks until it broke free of Earth’s gravity on December 1 and headed to Mars.
• Mars Express
  • Mars Express is a European spacecraft that mapped the surface of Mars.
  • The European Space Agency’s Mars Express was launched on June 2, 2003, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and went into Mars orbit on December 25, 2003.
  • Mars Express carried a color stereo camera, an energetic neutral atoms analyzer to study how the solar wind erodes the atmosphere, a mineralogical mapping spectrometer, and atmospheric and radio science experiments.
• Phoenix Mars Lander
  • Phoenix mars lander is a U.S. space probe launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on Aug. 4, 2007.
  • It landed on May 25, 2008, in the north polar region of Mars.
  • Phoenix’s main objective was to collect and analyze soil samples in order to provide answers to the questions of whether the Martian arctic can support life, what the history of water is at the landing site, and how Martian climate is affected by polar dynamics.
  • Phoenix more closely resembled the Viking landers of the 1970s than the twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity, which landed on Mars in 2004 and roamed their respective landing sites for years.
  • Like the Viking landers, Phoenix was slowed in its descent to the Martian surface by thrusters rather than airbags, which were used by the twin rovers.
  • Phoenix stayed at a single location in the Martian arctic and drilled for rock samples with a 2.35-meter (7.7-foot) robotic arm, the arm placing the samples for analysis in a small self-contained chemistry laboratory.
  • Other instruments included a small weather station and a camera.