Years ago, even back to the time of the Apollo missions, the United
States and Russia were competing in a space exploration race. As time
has past, other countries in Europe and Asia have developed space programs
of their own.
With today's shrinking space science budgets, it has become increasingly
clear that it will be difficult for any one country to take planetary
science solely upon themselves. Rather, international efforts will allow
researchers to take the most advantage of each spacecraft that is launched.
Mars Together, an international space exploration program, is an example
of such an effort.
This 1998 unmanned mission to Mars will be the first flight traveling
to Mars that will incorporate large spacecraft elements from participants
around the world. This flight will save costs while providing an international
Mars journey. There are flights to Mars, which are under the direction
of the US or Russia, where another country has added an experiment or
instrument, but in these cases they are combining mission elements traditionally
controlled by a single country.
- The Mars Together program will involve an international orbiter,
including one similar to the Mars 96 orbiter and the Mars Global Surveyor.
- A Russian Rover, Lavochkin, will be carried on the 1998 flight.
Attached to it will be a McDonnell Douglas manipulator arm and a JPL
mini-rover.
- A French low-altitude balloon system will be sent to the surface
with the rovers.
- German and Italian science instruments were proposed.
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