TL the "Geologist" wrote:

Well the most recent one, considering the miserable failures they have

had

with the moon recently and a couple of other rovers they sent to Mars.
However, this is not the first rover, and I'm quite sure it will not be

the

last.



Miserable failures with the moon???




If memory serves me correctly, didnt they lose two rovers somwhere around
the south pole in the last three years?

No, I'm afraid that there were no lunar probes lost somewhere around the south
pole of the moon. In fact, there have been no failures of NASA missions to
the moon since Apollo 13, and no U.S. unmanned lunar probe failures even
farther back to the old Surveyor 4 back in July of 1967. The only lunar
rovers deployed by the U.S. were on the Apollo 15, 16, and 17 lunar missions,
all successful. The last two U.S. probes to the moon were Clementine and
Prospector, both orbiters and both of which were highly successful.
As for Mars, the only probe which attempted a polar landing was Mars
Polar Lander, which was lost during descent to the Martian southern polar
regions due to a premature cutoff of the descent engines (a modified backup
spacecraft is scheduled to attempt a similar landing in the northern polar
regions in a few years). The only one deploying a rover (so far) was
Pathfinder which was successful (with the MER "Spirit" deployment coming up)
and it did not land near the polar regions. Of the five Mars landing attempts
by the U.S., four have now been sucessful. Of the 15 total U.S. probe
attempts to reach Mars, only 5 have failed (one flyby, two orbiters, and one
lander). Clear skies to you.

--
David W. Knisely
Prairie Astronomy Club: http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org
Hyde Memorial Observatory: http://www.hydeobservatory.info/

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