International Cooperation for Mars Exploration and Sample Return (1990) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
3 Intensive Investigations of Mars
3 Intensive Investigations of Mars
Pages 12-15
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 12... ...
Altogether, the present indirect clues suggest the likelihood of profound climatic change on Mars, including the possibility that flowing water occurred at least several times throughout the history of the planet. Mars has distinct seasons, with carbon dioxide cycling between the polar caps driving a major component: of the atmospheric circulation.
|
From page 13... ...
Fundamental questions to be addressed through investigations of Mars also include questions about the role' that life plays in the evolution of a planetary surface and environment; these questions are most effectively addressed through detailed investigation of another planet on which life seems to have played a much smaller role than it has on Earth, or no role at all. Other basic questions about Mars include the state and evolution of the planet's interior, the physical processes that have shaped the surface, the fate of the apparently missing water, and the nature of current and past hydrological cycles that link the polar caps, ground water, and atmosphere.
|
From page 14... ...
Because of the importance of a Mars program in terms of the quality and significance of the scientific objectives, the prestige and scientific importance associated with the return of the martian materials, and the substantial implications for new technologies such as robotics and artificial intelligence, this committee concurs with previous recommendations of the Space Studies Board and recommends the vigorous scientific exploration of Mars, with investigations on the martian surface and the return of marcian materials from several diverse sites, ranging from equatorial to polar, in order to http://www7.nationalacademies.org/ssb/marscoopch3.html (3 of 4)
|
From page 15... ...
Thus the committee recommends that operational capabilities at Mars include extended robotic mobility, manipulative capacity, and artificial intelligence in order to adequately study, sample, and return materials from the various sites on Mars. Last update 9/6/00 at 9:33 am Site managed by the SSB Web Group.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.