Are Mars Pathfinder and Mars Exploration Rover different names for the same project or are they different robots?
The Mars Pathfinder (called Sojourner) and the Mars Exploration Rovers are very different. The Mars Pathfinder mission ended in September of 1997, and Sojourner was much smaller than the Mars Exploration Rovers (MER). The two MERs are being built right now for launch next year, and will arrive at Mars in January 2004. Because the Mars Exploration Rovers are much larger and more capable than Sojourner was, they will be able to travel much farther and learn more about Mars. 7) Do you have to do a lot of research before you do an experiment? A good experiment requires a lot of research, so that you know whether similar experiments have been done before. The results of previous experiments are useful in figuring out what new experiments to do. But even if an experiment has been done before, it can be interesting to repeat it. If you get the same results, then you can be pretty sure they are correct. If you get different results, you can learn a lot in the process of figuring out why they a
