“A variety of Artificial Gravity/Mars Transfer Vehicle (AG/MTV) concepts were developed by the Martin Marietta Astronautics Group for NASA’s Mars Exploration Case Studies in 1988 to 1989. 2018/12/dual-mars-rovers-.Ĭredit: “No Shortage of Dreams: Mars Multi-Rover Mission (1977)”/David S. Apparently part of the ‘Purple Pigeon’ concept/proposal: Most importantly, I’m pretty sure it’s by Ken Hodges. THIS should NOT be the rocket science part. Safe bet that it’s yet another careless/clueless 'effort' in the NASA image identification/cataloging soup sandwich, football bat, dumpster fire. To my knowledge, artist's ‘concepts’ aren't retrospective! Or, was the photo released twice, once in '84 and then again in '88? Possible, but unlikely. So, which is it? 1984 or 1988? Neither? The caption doesn't comport with the photo ID number. Two pairs of rovers could traverse up to 5 kilometers (3 miles) daily each and help one another as needed.” The Rovers would gather scientific data from several wide-ranging areas and send it to the mother Orbiter for relay to Earth. “S88-29650 (February 1988)- In this artist's concept of a 1984 mission to Mars, a pair of Rovers (Vikings on Wheels) would follow up and extend the 1976 Martian explorations. The canal is used to drain that section of the salt flats. This image was made on the edge of the Great Salt Desert near the Bonneville Speedway. It was Lowell's descriptions of a planet inhabited by an advanced but dying civilization that inspired Burroughs' and became fodder for his many Mars novels. Variations in brightness, he claimed, were caused by increased vegetation as water flow changed throughout the year. According to Lowell the long straight lines he sketched and described in those lectures were not natural features but water canals made by a dying civilization. It was the famous astronomer Percival Lowell who fueled interest in Mars with his many lectures in the late 19th and early 20th centuries about canals on Mars and the society which created them. ABOUT THE TITLE: I'm a huge fan of Edgar Rice Burroughs and when I was making this and other pictures on the western edge of the Great Salt Desert, I almost felt transported to Barsoom, Burroughs' name for Mars in his novels about that then mysterious planet.

Barsoom lake