Word: lander
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...flying makes you queasy, you'll be relieved to know that Pathfinder--NASA's ultralight, solar-powered aircraft, that is, not the Mars lander of the same name--isn't taking passengers just yet. But according to a NASA briefing last week, the remote-controlled plane's high-altitude (71,500 ft.), low-speed (15 m.p.h.) flights are perfect for the kind of environmental research now being done by orbiting satellites. Pathfinder's flexible 99-ft. wings, glistening with $1 million worth of solar panels, have been tested only in sunny Hawaii. So the plane carries a backup battery system...
...FAVORITE MARTIAN All eyes were on Mars this summer as NASA's Pathfinder lander and its Sojourner rover beamed home spectacular pictures of the Red Planet and introduced Earthlings to rocks with names like Casper and Scooby Doo. Sniffing out the chemistry of both the rocks and the soil, the rover helped confirm scientists' suspicion that Mars was once a warm, wet place, possibly able to support life. After four months of work, the lander and rover succumbed to Mars' punishing cold. Now and then, however, when the sun is high in the Martian sky, the rover may stir, toddling...
UNPLUGGED. MARS PATHFINDER lander and its plucky rover SOJOURNER; following a Sept. 27 blackout, probably brought on by exposure to the cold Martian elements. During their four-month tenure, the lander and rover transmitted more than 16,550 pictures...
...past two months, Mars has been a lonely place. Despite the kudos that the Pathfinder lander and its sturdy rover have received from Earth, the spacecraft have operated largely alone, trying to study all of Mars without moving beyond a small patch of riverbed real estate...
...goes well, Surveyor will operate into the year 2000. Even before then, NASA's next Mars ships--a lander and an orbiter set to launch in 1998--should have arrived and begun their own surveys. "We're here for a long visit," said Cunningham. "We're here to stay, essentially." It will be a while before Mars is lonely again...