Artist's conception of the Mars Surveyor 2001
Click on image for full size
Image courtesy of JPL/NASA
Field trip to Mars?
News story originally written on March 26, 1999
The
Planetary Society is giving
students a chance to send a science experiment to
Mars.
A 2001 Mars Odyssey: The Student
NanoExperiment Challenge is an opportunity for students from across
the world to take part in the Mars Environmental Compatibility Assessment.
The MECA is one of the many projects aboard the Mars Surveyor 2001 lander,
which is scheduled to launch on April 10, 2001. It is designed to test
different material to see how they stand up to the Martian environment, in
order find out what dangers astronauts will eventually face.
The contest is only open to pre-college students who are 18 years old or
younger as of March 1, 1999. The experiment must fit in a one centimeter
high by one centimeter diameter cylinder and it must weigh less than three
grams. Also, the results will need to be able to be seen by the lander's
camera.
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