January 28, 2004
Space Shuttle
Challenger Crew Memorialized on Mars
NASA announced plans to name the landing
site of the Mars Opportunity rover in honor of the Space Shuttle
Challenger's final crew. The area in the vast flatland called
Meridiani Planum, where Opportunity landed this weekend, will
be called the Challenger Memorial Station.
Challenger Memorial Station
Click
for larger image
Courtesy NASA/JPL
The seven-member crew of Space Shuttle
Challenger was lost when the orbiter suffered an in-flight breakup
during launch Jan. 28, 1986, 18 years ago today.
NASA selected Meridiani Planum as a landing
site because of extensive deposits of a mineral called crystalline
hematite, which usually forms in the presence of liquid water.
Scientists had hoped for a specific landing site where they could
examine both the surface layer that's rich in hematite and an
underlying geological feature of light-colored layered rock.
The small crater in which Opportunity alighted appears to have
exposures of both, with soil that could be the hematite unit
and an exposed outcropping of the lighter rock layer.
Challenger's tenth flight was to have been
a six-day mission dedicated to research and education, as well
as the deployment of the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-B
communications satellite.
Challenger's commander was Francis R. Scobee
and the mission pilot was Michael J. Smith. Mission specialists
included Judith A. Resnik, Ellison S. Onizuka and Ronald E. McNair.
The mission also carried two payload specialists, Gregory B.
Jarvis and Sharon Christa McAuliffe, who was the agency's first
teacher in space.
Opportunity successfully landed on Mars
January 25 (Eastern and Universal Time; January 24 Pacific Time).
It will spend the next three months exploring the region surrounding
what is now known as Challenger Memorial Station to determine
if Mars was ever watery and suitable to sustain life.
Opportunity's twin, Spirit, is trailblazing
a similar path on the other side of the planet, in a Connecticut-sized
feature called Gusev Crater.
Previous article: Martian
Landmarks Dedicated to Apollo 1 Crew
|
