Welcome to the Mars Olympics!
Our Competitors:
Mars has hosted three operating rovers so far, with Curiosity hoping to be a fourth. Russian missions Mars-4 and Mars-5 also brought rovers to Mars, but these failed to function.Sojourner:
This little scamp hitched its ride to Mars aboard the stationary Pathfinder mission in 1997. Its six wheels set the standard for future rovers, but how will it fair with a frankly diminutive size of only 65cm long?
Spirit/Opportunity:
These sister rovers have roamed the Martian surface since their January 2004 landing. These rovers have a similar design to Sojourner with solar panels and 6 wheels, but will their size advantage (1.6m long and 1.5m high) help push them into the lead?
Curiosity:
The newest and most expensive of the bunch, Curiosity is the heavyweight contender. At 3m long, it towers the previous rovers. But will its bulk slow it down?
The Events:
The best humans can jump over 2.4m, but how do our Mars missions compare?
Sojourner: 80702129300mSpirit/Opportunity: 80702129300m
Curiosity: 80702129300m
So it's a tie! All four rovers have taken the leap across the emptiness of space to Mars. No human, rocket propelled or otherwise, has made it even nearly as far.
100m Sprint
The most-watched of all Olympic races, this event is a contest of all-out speed. Who will be the Usain Bolt of the Martian surface? And the times are in as follows:Sojourner: 2hrs47mins
Spirit/Opportunity: 33mins
Curiosity: 67mins
So the winner is the Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity, with a top speed of 5cm/s! The 900kg weight of Curiosity means that it will only reach 2.5cm/s. And little Sojourner comes in nearly 2 hours down on the others, poor thing!
Race to the Death
Not an official Olympic sport, I'll grant you that, but for robots on the surface of Mars this is the most important event - how far can each rover go before keeling over into the red dust?
Sojourner: 0.1km
Spirit: 7.7km
Opportunity: at least 34.6km
Curiosity: ????
Spirit and Opportunity are the marathon runners of the Mars Rovers. Where Sojourner managed only 100m, the MER missions have notched up an impressive combined total of over 40km. However, with Spirit now stuck in a sand trap, that leaves Opportunity to streak ahead into first place with a Martian Record distance of 34.6km. But with a 2-year-plus running time planned for Curiosity, and a 5.5km mountain to climb, this record could soon be challenged. Exciting times ahead!
I'm sure you will join me in saying good luck to Team Earth on Monday morning as our newest, and most advanced competitor will land on Mars and go for gold. And we will be there, palms sweating, pulse racing and eyes wide, to watch what could either be the beginning or the end of an amazing journey.
