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> 1999
> December
> December 3, 1999:
Hour One: Mars Landing Preview
NASA's Mars Polar Lander is now listed as missing, presumed dead, after a week of no contact from the far-flung probe. NASA administrator Dan Goldin announced that future Mars missions would be temporarily put on hold, while the Polar Lander mission is analyzed to try to figure out what went wrong. Some observers of the space agency say that the lost mission calls into question NASA's entire "New Millenium" program, based around the concept of "faster, better, cheaper."
On the afternoon of Friday, December 3, an eleven month, 470 million mile voyage was scheduled to come to an end. NASA's Mars Polar Lander, launched last January, arrived at the Red Planet and attempted to land near the south pole. | The probe was then to use instruments on board to monitor Martian weather, examine the soil, and search for water. Also on board were two "microprobes," which were supposed to detach from the lander while it was still high above the planet. After slamming into the ground at up to 400 miles an hour, the probes were supposed to send back data on characteristics of the soil beneath the surface - information that scientists hoped would reveal whether there is frozen water to be found beneath the planet's dusty exterior. | 
The lander is supposed to touch down within one of the ovals
in this image, at 75S, 195 W. (NASA image) | | The mission follows on the heels of the ill-fated Mars Climate Orbiter craft, which was destroyed in September due to an embarrassing error. Investigators discovered that one team working on the Orbiter used English units (inches, feet and pounds) while another used metric units (centimeters, meters, and kilograms) for a key part of navigation. They believe that using the wrong units in calculations guided the Orbiter too close to Mars, sending it crashing to its doom.
Now, this mission is missing as well- and NASA scientists have no definite explanation. | 
The DS2 Microprobes will penetrate
into the surface of Mars. (NASA image) | The microprobes, which were supposed to use an alternative method for commmunicating back to Earth, are also missing in action. One possible explanation is a sudden failure of the lander before the probes detached-- though analysts say it's also possible that the silence of the microprobes and the lander are due to different reasons. | On this hour of Science Friday, join guest host Joe Palca for a conversation with some of the engineers who designed and built the craft -- and with some of the scientists whose research hopes were on the mission. This interview took place before the scheduled landing of the mission, while all was still going as planned. | 
Technicians at Kennedy Space Center help
ready the Polar Lander for launch.
(NASA image) |
Guests:
Marsha Presley
Member of the Deep Space-2 Mars Microprobes Science Team
Faculty Research Associate, Department of Geology
Arizona State University
Phoenix, Arizona
Jim Bell
Assistant Professor, Department of Astronomy
Cornell University
Ithaca, New York
Rick Kasuda
Lockheed Martin Astronautics
Denver, Colorado
Books/Articles Discussed:
Related Links:
Mars Polar Lander Official Website
Deep Space 2
JPL Mars Missions News and Information
Mars Mission Mirror Sites
STN2
Coverage
Mars Polar Lander (Mars Surveyor 98 Lander) - Active Missions - SpaceRef
The Planetary Society
The Mars Society
Science Friday: July 4, 1997 - Pathfinder Landing (hour one) (hour two)
- This segment produced by:
Charles Bergquist
Web producer:
Charles Bergquist
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