• Ferox: The Forgotten Archives 1976-2010
Ferox: The Forgotten Archives 1976-2010
The discovery of a Feroxite meteorite in the Swiss alps on June 10, 1944 by a duo of Swiss/German geologists did not acquire any importance in the scientific world at…

The discovery of a Feroxite meteorite in the Swiss alps on June 10, 1944 by a duo of Swiss/German geologists did not acquire any importance in the scientific world at the time, mainly because the media were interested in other issues during the Second World War. It took time to understand the importance of the discovery, and only in 1972 did Rudolph H. Obrist, now director of IEMS, bring to light the first fragments of the meteorite and IEMS was initiated some years later. Since 1966 the European Space Agency (ESA) has been interested in a new mission aimed at creating a solid relationship with the rest of the world in order to decrease the tension between the United States of America and the USSR. On July 29, 1976 the dream of ESA became true and even if just with a symbolic economic help NASA and RKA joined ESA on the first mission created in order to understand the origins of the Feroxite meteorites that were supposed to come from the surrounding of Mars. Unmanned programs launched the first Martial artificial satellites into Mars surrounding gravity for scientific and communications purposes, and sent scientific probes to explore Ferox, the third moon of Mars, starting with the Exploration I rover in 1998 and followed by Exploration II in 2007. “Hello. This is Rudolph H. Obrist, IEMS Administrator, speaking to you via the broadcast facilities of the Exploration II rover, which is now on the surface of Ferox. Since the beginning of time, humankind’s curiosity has led us to constantly seek new life…new possibilities just beyond the horizon. I want to congratulate the men and women of our IEMS family as well as our commercial and government partners around the world, for taking us a step beyond to Ferox. This is an extraordinary achievement. Landing a rover on Ferox is not easy, only the perseverance of the entire world has fully succeeded. The investment we are making…the knowledge we hope to gain from our observation and analysis of the Sandy Mountain, will tell us much about the possibility of life on Ferox as well as the past and future possibilities for our own planet. Exploration II will bring benefits to Earth and inspire a new generation of scientists and explorers, as it prepares the way for a human mission in the not too distant future. Thank you.” Unfortunately the good message of Rudolph H. Obrist was followed by tragic news as Exploration II landed 34.3 km off the landing point found by the scientist through Exploration I, directly into a crater which was renamed “The Void”. It would have been impossible for the Rover to get out, the crater’s huge walls transforming his mission into a prison and limiting the discovery to 3.5/100 of what the scientist supposed to find. The mission Exploration II cost 2.5 Billion dollars and was one of the biggest failures in the history of space conquest in the new millennium.

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Ciao Press

Publisher: Ciao Press
Published: 2023
Origin: Switzerland
Language: English
Length × Width × Height: 30 × 22 × 3 cm

Article Number: 35962