SUCCESSFUL ground tests on a novel rocket motor have demonstrated that a spacecraft should be able to explore Mars powered by fuel it manufactures from the Martian atmosphere. Such a craft could undertake far longer missions into more varied terrain than would be possible if fuel had to be ferried from Earth.
Mars rovers like NASA’s 1997 Sojourner craft trundle around on wheels, but these cannot cover scientifically interesting areas of rougher terrain, such as suspected traces of water flow during the past. Neither can they cross chasms or hop over cliffs.
Diane Linne and Geoffrey Landis at NASA’s Glenn…
