Exploratour - Mars Exploration
Mars 2001
The Mars 2001 mission centers around the Surveyor Orbiter. The scheduled launch date for the orbiter is April 7, 2001. If all goes well, the spacecraft will reach Mars on October 20, 2001.
The spacecraft will carry a gamma ray spectrometer. A spectrometer is an instrument which measures the characteristic fingerprint of minerals on the surface. The gamma ray spectrometer was inherited from the lost Mars Observer mission.
Other instruments include the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) and the Mars Radiation Environment Experiment (MARIE). MARIE will investigate the amount of radiation present in the atmosphere and their effects on humans.