Page 26 - Robots Androids and Animatrons : 12 Incredible Projects You Can Build
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1.1 Mars Pathfinder. Photo courtesy of NASA
Both the Pathfinder lander and rover have stereo imaging systems.
The rover carries an alpha proton X-ray spectrometer that is used
to determine the composition of rocks. The lander made atmos-
pherical and meteorological observations and was the radio relay
station to Earth for information and pictures transmitted by the
rover.
Mission objectives The Sojourner rover itself was an experiment.
Performance data from Sojourner determined that microrover
explorers are cost efficient and useful. In addition to the science
that has already been discussed, the following tasks were also per-
formed:
Long-range and short-range imaging of the surface of Mars
Analysis of soil mechanics
Tracking Mars dead-reckoning sensor performance
Team LRN In the beginning