The successful operation of sophisticated dust-gathering equipment developed in Denmark and fitted on the two Mars exploration rovers has helped gain the space project on the Red Planet an extra five months of research assignments.
Nasa has approved an extended mission for the Mars rovers, handing them up to five months of overtime assignments as they complete their three-month prime mission. The mission originally designed to finish at the end of this month has been extended to September.
Spirit and Opportunity, the two robotic rovers that have made headlines exploring opposite sides of the Red Planet, are the mission explorers. But to do their jobs, they need a little help from the scientists behind the scenes. Both rovers carry magnets developed in Denmark for experiments to analyse Martian dust.
Morten Madsen, science team member from the Centre for Planetary Science in Copenhagen, said Mars was a dusty place and some of that dust was highly magnetic. Magnetic minerals carried in dust grains may be freeze-dried remnants of the planet's watery past. An examination of these particles and their patterns of accumulation on magnets of varying strength can reveal clues about their mineralogy and the planet's geologic history.
'Dust covers much of Mars' surface and hangs in the atmosphere, occasionally rising into giant dust storms. One of the magnets is designed to exclude any magnetic dust particles from landing in the centre of a target area. During Spirit's time on Mars, dust had accumulated on other parts of the target while the centre had remained 'probably the cleanest area anywhere on the surface of the rover', Dr Madsen said.
The mission extension provides US$15 million for operating the rovers until September.
Orlando Figueroa, Mars exploration programme director at the US space agency, said: 'Given the rovers' tremendous success, the project submitted a proposal for extending the mission, and we have approved it.'