Mars Approach to Earth Closest for 60,000 Years

PASADENA, California, August 6, 2003 (ENS) - On August 27, the fourth planet from the Sun will be less than 34.65 million miles (55.76 million kilometers) away from the Earth, closer than it has been in 60,000 years, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). In March, Mars was about five times that distance from the Earth.

The event will be the closest approach between the two planets in recorded history. The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287.

"Think of Earth and Mars as two race cars going around a track," said Dr. Myles Standish, an astronomer from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. "Earth is on a race track that is inside the track that Mars goes around, and neither track is perfectly circular. There is one place where the two race tracks are closest together. When Earth and Mars are at that place simultaneously, it is an unusually close approach, referred to as a perihelic opposition."

White water ice clouds and orange dust storms are visible on Mars in this sharpest view ever obtained by an Earth based telescope. (Photo courtesy NASA)

Standish says looking through a telescope is the best way to view the red planet during this unique close approach when it will be the brightest object in the night sky, next to the Moon. "You're not going to go outside and see some big red ball in the sky," said Standish. "It will look like a bright red star."

Mars will be closest on August 27, but astronomers recommend viewing the planet earlier, as dust storm season on Mars is starting and the Martian dust can obstruct a detailed view.

Currently, two U.S. spacecraft are streaking across the distance between Earth and Mars, each carrying a field geology robot scheduled for arrival at Mars in January. After they touch down, the two rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, will examine their landing areas for geological evidence about the history of water on Mars at two sites where conditions may once have been favorable to life.

In addition, two NASA orbiters, Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey, are actively examining the planet.

High school students are being offered a chance to experience a Mars space mission from launch through landing. Teams from 13 schools are participating in the Athena Student Interns program, and the Mars Exploration Student Data Team has 51 participating schools.

Students and teachers in the programs will spend a week at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory while the rovers are operating on the surface of Mars. In advance, the students will learn about the geology of Mars, the scientific and mechanical capabilities of the rovers, and the software needed to visualize the data that will be returned to Earth during the mission.

On Monday, NASA selected its next Mars lander, a mission that joins a growing list of spacecraft aimed at exploring Mars. Phoenix, an innovative and, with budget capped at $325 million, a relatively low cost mission, will study the red planet.

The first Mars Scout mission, the Phoenix lander is scheduled for launch in 2007. It will conduct the first subsurface analysis of ice bearing materials on another planet.

The Phoenix lander, designed to explore the high northern latitudes of Mars, will follow up on Mars Odyssey's discovery of water ice near the surface in these regions. The terrain to be explored may contain as much as 80 percent water ice by volume within one foot of the surface, NASA scientists say.

An illustration of a proposed model of Martian snowfall and meltoff creating gullies on the planet's surface. (Photo courtesy Mars 2001 Odyssey)

An innovative camera system will photograph the Phoenix landing site just before it touches down in late 2008. A robotic arm will dig down into the ground as deep at 3.3 feet (one meter), while imaging with a camera mounted on the arm.

Carrying out the first study of the polar climate of another planet as part of the Phoenix mission, scientists from the Canadian Space Agency will measure Martian weather conditions using laser radar (lidar) technologies developed by MacDonald Dettwiler's subsidiary MD Robotics of Ontario.

Dr. Jim Garvin, the Mars Scout program scientist at NASA Headquarters, said, "NASA's Mars Exploration Program continues its exciting, science driven exploration of Mars by extending the quest for evidence of life using new vantage points, and by measuring the previously unmeasurable. Phoenix exemplifies this approach by seeking clues about habitats by landing a remarkable laboratory in known ice-rich polar regions."

Principal investigator, Dr. Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, leads the Phoenix mission in a partnership with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver.