MARSBUGS: The Electronic Astrobiology Newsletter Volume 6, Number 40, 6 December 1999. Editors: Dr. David J. Thomas, Biology and Chemistry Division, Lyon College, Batesville, AR 72503-2317, USA. Dthomas@lyon.edu or marsbugs@aol.com Dr. Julian A. Hiscox, School of Animal and Microbial Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, RG6 6AJ, United Kingdom. J.A.Hiscox@reading.ac.uk Marsbugs is published on a weekly to quarterly basis as warranted by the number of articles and announcements. Copyright of this compilation exists with the editors, except for specific articles, in which instance copyright exists with the author/authors. While we cannot copyright our mailing list, our readers would appreciate it if others would not send unsolicited e-mail using the Marsbugs mailing list. The editors do not condone "spamming" of our subscribers. Persons who have information that may be of interest to subscribers of Marsbugs should send that information to the editors. E-mail subscriptions are free, and may be obtained by contacting either of the editors. Article contributions are welcome, and should be submitted to either of the two editors. Contributions should include a short biographical statement about the author(s) along with the author(s)' correspondence address. Subscribers are advised to make appropriate inquiries before joining societies, ordering goods etc. Back issues and Adobe Acrobat PDF files suitable for printing may be obtained from the official Marsbugs web page at http://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/dthomas/marsbugs/marsbugs.html . The purpose of this newsletter is to provide a channel of information for scientists, educators and other persons interested in exobiology and related fields. This newsletter is not intended to replace peer-reviewed journals, but to supplement them. We, the editors, envision Marsbugs as a medium in which people can informally present ideas for investigation, questions about exobiology, and announcements of upcoming events. Astrobiology is still a relatively young field, and new ideas may come out of the most unexpected places. Subjects may include, but are not limited to: exobiology and astrobiology (life on other planets), the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), ecopoeisis and terraformation, Earth from space, planetary biology, primordial evolution, space physiology, biological life support systems, and human habitation of space and other planets. ---------------------------------------------------------------- CONTENTS 1) MARS POLAR LANDER, DEEP SPACE 2 SET FOR ARRIVAL JPL release 2) ASU GEOLOGISTS EXCITED BY THE POSSIBILITIES AND MYSTERIES OF UPCOMING MARS LANDING Arizona State University release 3) EUROPE PREPARES ITS OWN MARS MISSION, AS NASA'S PROBE LANDS ON MARS From ESA Science News 4) STARPORT.COM LAUNCHES WITH LIVE VIEWING OF MARS LANDING Starport.com release 5) REDISCOVERING THE RED PLANET: LATEST RESULTS FROM THE EXPLORATION OF MARS Lecture announcement 6) THIS WEEK ON GALILEO JPL release 7) MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR STATUS REPORT JPL release 8) NEW MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGES By Ron Baalke 9) MARS POLAR LANDER MISSION STATUS REPORTS JPL releases ---------------------------------------------------------------- MARS POLAR LANDER, DEEP SPACE 2 SET FOR ARRIVAL JPL release 30 November 1999 NASA returns to the surface of Mars on December 3 with a spacecraft that will land on the frigid, windswept steppe near the edge of Mars' south polar cap. Piggybacking on the lander are two small probes that will smash into the Martian surface to test new technologies. The lander mission is the second installment in NASA's long- term program of robotic exploration of Mars, which was initiated with the 1996 launches of the currently orbiting Mars Global Surveyor and the Mars Pathfinder lander and rover, and included the recently lost Mars Climate Orbiter. Mars Polar Lander will advance our understanding of Mars' current water resources by digging into the enigmatic layered terrain near one of its poles for the first time. Instruments on the lander will analyze surface materials, frost, weather patterns and interactions between the surface and atmosphere to better understand how the climate of Mars has changed over time. Polar Lander carries a pair of basketball-sized microprobes that will be released as the lander approaches Mars and dive toward the planet's surface, penetrating up to about 1 meter (3 feet) underground to test 10 new technologies, including a science instrument to search for traces of water ice. The microprobe project, called Deep Space 2, is part of NASA's New Millennium Program. A key scientific objective of the two missions is to determine how the climate of Mars has changed over time and where water, in particular, resides on Mars today. Water once flowed on Mars, but where did it go? Clues may be found in the geologic record provided by the polar layered terrain, whose alternating bands of color seem to contain different mixtures of dust and ice. Like growth rings of trees, these layered geological bands may help reveal the secret past of climate change on Mars and help determine whether it was driven by a catastrophic change, episodic variations or merely a gradual evolution in the planet's environment. Today the martian atmosphere is so thin and cold that it does not rain; liquid water does not last on the surface, but quickly freezes into ice or evaporates into the atmosphere. The temporary polar frosts which advance and retreat with the seasons are made mostly of condensed carbon dioxide, the major constituent of the Martian atmosphere. But the planet also hosts both water-ice clouds and dust storms, the latter ranging in scale from local to global. If typical amounts of atmospheric dust and water were concentrated today in the polar regions, they might deposit a fine layer every year, so that the top meter (or yard) of the polar layered terrains could be a well-preserved record showing 100,000 years of martian geology and climatology. The lander and microprobes will arrive December 3, 1999. They are aimed toward a target sector within the edge of the layered terrain near Mars' south pole. The exact landing site coordinates were selected in August 1999, based on images and altimeter data from the currently orbiting Mars Global Surveyor. Like Mars Pathfinder, Polar Lander will dive directly into the Martian atmosphere, using an aeroshell and parachute scaled down from Pathfinder's design to slow its initial descent. The smaller Polar Lander will not use airbags, but instead will rely on onboard guidance and retro-rockets to land softly on the layered terrain near the south polar cap a few weeks after the seasonal carbon dioxide frosts have disappeared. After the heat shield is jettisoned, a camera will take a series of pictures of the landing site as the spacecraft descends. These are recorded onboard and transmitted to Earth after landing. As the lander approaches Mars about 10 minutes before touchdown, the two Deep Space 2 microprobes are released. Once released, the projectiles will collect atmospheric data before they crash at about 200 meters per second (400 miles per hour) and bury themselves beneath the Martian surface. The microprobes will test the ability of very small spacecraft to deploy future instruments for soil sampling, meteorology and seismic monitoring. A key instrument will draw a tiny soil sample into a chamber, heat it and use a miniature laser to look for signs of vaporized water ice. About 60 kilometers (35 miles) away from the microprobe impact sites, Mars Polar Lander will dig into the top of the terrain using a 2-meter-long (6½-foot) robotic arm. A camera mounted on the robotic arm will image the walls of the trench, viewing the texture of the surface material and looking for fine-scale layering. The robotic arm will also deliver soil samples to a thermal and evolved gas analyzer, an instrument that will heat the samples to detect water and carbon dioxide. An onboard weather station will take daily readings of wind temperature and pressure, and seek traces of water vapor. A stereo imager perched atop a 1.5-meter (5-foot) mast will photograph the landscape surrounding the spacecraft. All of these instruments are part of an integrated science payload called the Mars Volatiles and Climate Surveyor. Also onboard the lander is a light detection and ranging (lidar) experiment provided by Russia's Space Research Institute. The instrument will detect and determine the altitude of atmospheric dust hazes and ice clouds above the lander. Inside the instrument is a small microphone, furnished by the Planetary Society, Pasadena, CA, which will record the sounds of wind gusts, blowing dust and mechanical operations onboard the spacecraft itself. The lander is expected to operate on the surface for 60 to 90 martian days through the planet's southern summer (a martian day is 24 hours, 37 minutes). The mission will continue until the spacecraft can no longer protect itself from the cold and dark of lengthening nights and the return of the Martian seasonal polar frosts. Mars Polar Lander and Deep Space 2 are managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. Lockheed Martin Astronautics Inc., Denver, CO, is the agency's industrial partner for development and operation of the orbiter and lander spacecraft. JPL designed and built the Deep Space 2 microprobes. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA. ---------------------------------------------------------------- ASU GEOLOGISTS EXCITED BY THE POSSIBILITIES AND MYSTERIES OF UPCOMING MARS LANDING Arizona State University release 30 November 1999 If all goes well on December 3, three Arizona State University geologists will find themselves sitting (albeit robotically through a NASA lander) on a dynamic and mysterious part of Mars that no lander has visited before and where no one, not even these mission scientists, knows exactly what to expect. One thing they do know--there is a chance to do planetary geology here unlike any that has been done before. When the Mars Polar Lander touches down at the edge of the Martian South Polar Cap about 800 miles from the martian South Pole, ASU's Ronald Greeley, Laurie Leshin and Marsha Presley--geologists on several of the mission's science teams--should find themselves in a novel landscape with many of the essential tools at hand that a geologist needs to really explore and understand. "The payload for the lander is geared towards looking at Mars' climate history," said Greeley, who is on the science team for the lander's cameras. "The landing site was selected in the south polar area because, like the polar deposits on earth, they may record the climatic record of Mars." Greeley is particularly excited by the possibilities offered by the lander's 2-meter-long robotic arm, which will be able to dig into the surface of the planet and scoop up samples for analysis. The arm is fitted with a special close-up camera, a "microscopic imager." "Just as we look at the ice deposits in Antarctica and the Arctic, so we'll be able to examine the history of Mars when the arm digs down into the soil," said Greeley. "One of the things that the Mars Pathfinder camera and the camera on the rover were not able to do was to look at rocks and soils up close. If you are around any geologist, you know they always carry a hand lens--essentially, that's what this is. We want to be able to look at rock texture and to look at soils under magnification. That's what the arm camera is going to do for us." Leshin, a "cosmochemist," (a geochemist who studies cosmic chemistry) is even more interested in the samples that the arm will dig up. "We will dig in the dirt looking for ground ice, which is predicted to be present at these southerly latitudes," she said. "We are testing this hypothesis with our mission. The robot arm will also deliver soil samples to the Thermal and Evolved Gas Analyzer which heats them up looking for ice, water- bearing minerals (like clays), and carbonates." "I am a co-investigator on the Mars Volatiles and Climate Surveyor (MVACS). MVACS comprises 4 instruments that will work together on the martian surface to form a sort of 'robotic geologist.' My specific interest is in using two tunable diode laser spectrometers on board to measure water and CO2 in the soil and atmosphere. These TDL spectrometers use highly tunable, tiny (head of a pin size) lasers to measure the absorption of water and CO2 in the atmosphere and that are released from the soil upon heating." Presley is an expert on martian thermal conductivity and is on the microprobe science team, which is a separate soil analysis effort. Before the landing, two basketball-sized aeroshells carrying the microprobes will deploy from the spacecraft, crash into the south polar Region (at 400 miles per hour) and shatter on impact. The microprobes will be driven into the planet's surface. The microprobes are less than 18 centimeters in length. After insertion, they will extend one component up to six feet beneath the planet's surface. A second component, tethered to the first, will remain at the surface. The microprobes are designed to operate for 50 hours in temperatures as low as -180 degrees Celsius (-292 Fahrenheit). The devices will search for evidence of subsurface water ice. They also will provide data that should allow scientists to characterize both the thermal and physical properties of the soil they are in. Presley's job is to translate that data into meaningful information. All the instrumentation should provide a bonanza of information. Even with all the high tech tools NASA has already used on Mars, the projected landing site still holds some deep mystery. Remote sensing from orbit--which has a resolution of about two meters--has shown the scientists some features that the scientists still cannot fully explain. "This is a part of Mars we've never been to before," said Leshin. "It's as if all three previous landers visited North America, and we're going to Antarctica! We honestly have no idea what the terrain will look like at a human scale. So when we wake up on the afternoon of December 3 (it will be early morning on Mars) and look around, it will be very exciting to see what is there." "This is a completely new terrain and the things that we do see in the high resolution pictures from orbit are very bizarre," said Greeley. "Those of us who have worked in geology and remote sensing for a while are really scratching our heads over what we're looking at. It's strange. "There are dark and bright spots, maybe 20 to 30 feet across. We can't tell very well if they are hills or holes. This is a region where the seasonal ice cap is retreating, the carbon dioxide frost is ablating. Some of these things are related to the retreat of that frost. The bright areas are probably patches of frost that are left behind in areas that are a little more protected. The dark things are probably places where the frost is all gone and it's just dirt. But there are also dark patterns that radiate from some of these spots. Here we have a spot and then we have these dark, sinuous patterns forming out from them. Other places we see networks of dark patterns. "There are patterns that we just don't understand. It's going to be interesting, whatever it is and to relate what we see on the ground to what we see from orbit... that's going to be really scientifically exciting," he said. ---------------------------------------------------------------- EUROPE PREPARES ITS OWN MARS MISSION, AS NASA'S PROBE LANDS ON MARS From ESA Science News http://sci.esa.int 2 December 1999 Just before NASA's Mars Polar Lander bounces to a gentle halt on Mars this week, it will jettison two small probes that will crash into the planet and penetrate its surface. Four years later, in December 2003, another probe will land on the red planet to take a look underground. Called Beagle 2, it will hitch a ride to Mars on Europe's Mars Express mission. NASA's probes will be looking mainly for water and ice, but Beagle 2 will also be searching for the signs of life. The European Space Agency gave final approval for Beagle 2 to fly on Mars Express at a meeting of its Science Programme Committee (SPC) last month. The UK team that is building the lander convinced the SPC that technical and engineering progress is on target for launch in June 2003. The SPC also accepted that Professor Colin Pillinger, the principal investigator from the Open University, has a viable plan for raising enough public and private finance to pay for Beagle. "We can now go full steam ahead and get up to speed with everybody else on the mission," says Pillinger. Beagle 2 will look for signs of life below the Martian surface because any that once existed above ground will have been "burnt by the Sun", says Andre Brack, chairman of a group of scientists interested in using Beagle's results. Beagle 2 will have a robotic arm on which will be mounted a drill and a grinder to remove the outer weathered rind of rocks and expose the pristine interior for analysis. The arm will also carry a "mole" which will burrow down through the soil to pick up samples in its "mouth" from depths of about a meter. All rock and soil samples will be subjected to chemical analysis to determine their type, origins and whether they harbor signs of extinct life. Beagle will also look for evidence of existing life in the atmosphere. Mars Express helps make up for the loss of NASA's Climate Orbiter Mars Polar Lander was to have relayed the data it has gathered back to Earth via Mars Climate Orbiter. But the loss of that spacecraft in September forced a change of plan and the link in the data chain will now be Mars Global Surveyor, which was already in orbit around the red planet. Beagle 2 will probably make similar use of Mars Express, which will be orbiting around the Martian poles while seven instruments on board make remote observations. At its meeting last month, ESA's SPC approved changes to two of the orbiting instruments. SPICAM, an instrument to measure the spatial variation in composition of the atmosphere, will now be able to look at the atmosphere in the infrared as well as the ultraviolet. "This will enable SPICAM to map the water content of the atmosphere and take over some of the objectives that were lost with Mars Climate Observer," says Agustin Chicarro, Mars Express project scientist at ESA's technical centre, ESTEC in the Netherlands. "Water vapour is the most important gas for picturing the conditions for life on Mars, now and in the past. At present, it enters the atmosphere when the northern icy polar cap warms up each summer. But there are huge variations from one year to the next that are not at all understood, and require constant monitoring from space missions," says Jean-Loup Bertaux, principal investigator for SPICAM from the Service d'Aeronomie du CNRS, Verrieres-le-Buisson, France. An up-grade to the High Resolution Stereoscopic Camera (HRSC) was also approved. "The HRSC will still map the whole surface of Mars with 10-20m resolution. But an additional super resolution channel will now allow specific areas of interest to be mapped down to a resolution of 2m. We will just be able to pick out Beagle 2 on the surface," says Gerhard Neukum, HRSC principal investigator from the Institut fur Weltraumsensorik und Planetenerkundung in Berlin. For further information contact: Professor Colin Pillinger Planetary Science research Institute Open University, UK Telephone +44 1908 652119 Fax +44 1908 655910 E-mail: psri@open.ac.uk Dr. Andre Brack Centre de Biophysique Moelculaire Orleans, France Telephone +33 238 255576 Fax +33 238631517 E-mail: brack@cnrs-orleans.fr Dr. Jean-Loup Bertaux Service d'Aeronomie du CNRS Verrieres-le-Buisson France Telephone +33 1 64474251 Fax +33 1 69202999 E-mail: Jean-loup.bertaux@aerov.jussieu.fr Professor Gerhard Neukum Institut fur Weltsraumsensorik und Planetenerkundung, DLR Berlin, Germany Telephone +49 30 67055300 Mobile +49 171 7647177 Fax +49 30 67055303 E-mail: gerhard.neukum@dlr.de Agustin Chicarro ESTEC, Noordwijk The Netherlands Telephone +31 715 5653613 Fax +31 715 5654697 E-mail: achicarr@estec.esa.nl USEFUL LINKS FOR THIS STORY * Mars Express homepage http://sci.esa.int/marsexpress * Beagle 2 homepage http://beagle2.open.ac.uk/beagle2/index.htm * HRSC homepage http://solarsystem.dlr.de/FE/hrsc.shtml [IMAGE CAPTIONS: http://sci.esa.int/newsitem.cfm?TypeID=1&ContentID=8051&Storytyp e=22] [Image 1] Artist impression of the Mars Express spacecraft [Image 2] Model of the Beagle 2 lander ---------------------------------------------------------------- STARPORT.COM LAUNCHES WITH LIVE VIEWING OF MARS LANDING Starport.com release 3 December 1999 As the world anxiously awaits the touchdown of NASA's Mars Polar Lander at 3:01pm ET today, a new web site is offering Internet users the chance to meet the space explorers paving the way to mankind's exploration of the Red Planet. Starport.com, launched on Monday, provides visitors exclusive access to the world's astronauts and cosmonauts, as well as full coverage of our return to Mars. To provide "the source for space explorers," Starport.com has acquired the leading web sites providing information about astronauts and space exploration. In addition, unique content, such as astronaut profiles and a complete archive of biographies of every person who has ever flown in space, was developed for the site, the latter of which has never before been available to Internet users. "Starport.com offers a unique perspective on space exploration, an aspect that everyone can identify with," said Andrew Schwab, Starport.com's President and CEO. "We focus on the space explorers, those who have and will venture beyond Earth to expand humankind's understanding of the universe." continued Schwab. To provide the most up-to-date and extensive information about today's Mars landing, Starport.com has partnered with the National Space Society (NSS), an international non-profit organization promoting the creation of a spacefaring civilization. The collaboration expands the NSS's very popular "Mars Madness!" web site, created for the Mars Pathfinder landing in 1997. Joining the NSS and Starport.com are content partners Yahoo! Chat, SpaceViews, and SpaceWatch, who will be streaming live video from the Mars Polar Lander Mission Operations Center. About Starport.com Combining outer space with cyberspace, Starport.com is the premier online resource for space education, entertainment and exploration ­ featuring exciting online space exploration experiences, providing access to astronauts and their heroic stories and dreams, and live space-related events. The Starport.com team includes both space and Internet entrepreneurs, along with several astronauts. ---------------------------------------------------------------- REDISCOVERING THE RED PLANET: LATEST RESULTS FROM THE EXPLORATION OF MARS Lecture announcement 6 December 1999 Hear what new observations of Mars are revealing about the planet's current environment and topography as well as its past climate and history. Results from recent orbiter and lander missions are providing a surprisingly new view of the planet's geology, interior structure, and atmosphere that are enabling the planet's complex history to be unraveled. Dr. Maria Zuber will speak on "Rediscovering the Red Planet: Latest Results from the Exploration of Mars" on December 9, 5 PM at the National Academies Auditorium, 2100 C Street NW, Washington DC. The lecture is free and open to the public. For more information, visit www.nationalacademies.org/opus or call 202- 334-2415. ---------------------------------------------------------------- THIS WEEK ON GALILEO JPL release 29 November - 5 December 1999 This week Galileo continues with the return of images and other science information acquired during its amazing flyby of Io last week. Last week's flyby was the closest yet of three performed during Galileo's mission at Jupiter. The first flyby was performed in December 1995 during Galileo's arrival to the Jupiter system but was limited in science scope as a result of an anomaly in the spacecraft's onboard tape recorder, detected on approach to the gas giant. A workaround to the anomaly was implemented shortly after arrival, allowing Galileo to perform its mission at Jupiter. The second flyby occurred on October 10. Despite a safing event that halted spacecraft activity a mere four hours prior to last week's closest approach to Io, quick action by flight team members here on Earth brought the spacecraft out of safing four minutes after the closest approach to Io. This was in time to allow Galileo to complete more than half of its planned observations of Io and its plasma torus (a region of intense plasma and radiation activity, in which there are strong magnetic and electric fields), and all of the planned observations of Europa. Among the lost observations was a Fields and Particles recording scheduled to be made as the spacecraft flew closest to Io. The data from this observation would have allowed scientists to determine if Io possessed its own internally-generated magnetic field, similar to both the Earth and to another Galilean moon, Ganymede. This week's playback includes observations performed by the Solid-State Imaging (SSI) camera, Near-Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (NIMS) and Photopolarimeter Radiometer (PPR). During data playback, the spacecraft computer retrieves the stored data from the tape recorder, then processes and packages the data, and subsequently transmits the data to Earth. Here on Earth, the large antennas (70 meters in diameter) of the Deep Space Network capture Galileo's radio transmissions and send them to JPL for ground processing and, ultimately, delivery to the science community. Data playback is interrupted three times this week. On Monday, the spacecraft will execute a small flight path correction. On Wednesday, the spacecraft performs standard maintenance on its propulsion systems. Also on Wednesday, NIMS performs an instrument calibration. SSI and NIMS return the first couple of observations of this week. In a joint venture, the instrument pair looked at a region of Io's surface near the terminator (or line dividing night from day). This observation is followed by the return of a NIMS observation containing a regional map of Io's surface. SSI then returns an observation of Amalthea, one of Jupiter's minor moons. The observation will provide the best resolution ever of the moon at 3.7 kilometers (2.3 miles) per picture element. Playback focus then turns to the observations of Europa that were taken while Galileo was inbound to the Jupiter system last week. PPR returns three observations from the Europa observing campaign. In the first, PPR looked at Europa's dark side. The observation will be compared to day side observations of the same regions performed on previous orbits. The comparison is expected to help identify heat sources or thermal anomalies originating from within the icy moon. PPR's second observation contains polarimetry measurements of Europa's surface. These measurements will allow scientists to study Europa's surface texture and thermal properties. PPR then returns a dayside thermal map of Europa. Similiar to PPR's first observation, the map captures a region of Europa's night side that was observed in September 1998. The two sets of data covering this region will be compared in hopes of determining whether the anomalous temperatures detected in the first observation are due to Europa's heat retention characteristics (or thermal inertia), or possibly due to heat from volcanic activity inside Europa. SSI and NIMS also return observations of Europa. NIMS returns an observation that captured measurements of Europa's north pole. The observation is expected to provide the highest resolution views of the polar region to date. NIMS thens returns a spectral map looking for evidence of plate tectonics on Europa's surface. In the last observation of this week, SSI returns a global scale image of the icy moon. For more information on the Galileo spacecraft and its mission to Jupiter, please visit the Galileo home page at one of the following URL's: http://galileo.jpl.nasa.gov http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/galileo http://galileo.ivv.nasa.gov ---------------------------------------------------------------- MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR STATUS REPORT JPL release 1 December 1999 Launch / Days since Launch = Nov 7, 1996 / 1120 days Start of Mapping / Days since Start of Mapping = April 1, 1999 / 244 days Last Orbit Covered by this Report = 3277 Total Orbits = 4959 Total Mapping Orbits = 3277 Recent events The mm009 sequence continues executing nominally the daily science record and playback events. The mm009 sequence will run through Wednesday December 15, at which point the mm010 sequence will take over. The DS2 Mars Microprobes mini-sequences, used to sequence the Mars Relay (MR) commands for the over-flights of the two probes, were successfully uplinked Friday November 26. The mz026 mini- sequence is the nominal Mars sol 0 through 3 sequence. The mz027 and mz028 sequences are contingency sequences for probe 1 and 2 respectively, taking advantage of more frequent MGS over- flights than the mz026 nominal sequence. If successful contact is made with one or both probes the appropriate contingency sequence or sequences will be stopped by ground command. The MR was successfully powered on Monday November 29, completing the required uplinks necessary to support the DS2 mission. HGA anomaly The HGA inner gimbal angle continues to decrease and is currently at 65 degrees. The inner gimbal angle will continue decreasing, reaching the location of the gimbal obstruction at 41.5 deg in early February. Work continues on the implementation of the new mapping data collection and return plan that will maximize the science data return for the remainder of the nominal mapping mission. JPL has provided an engineering delivery of the update command blocks. Work is also proceeding well on the development of the automated mapping sequence generation tool. System level validation in the STL should begin in the next couple of weeks. Spacecraft health All other subsystems continue to report nominal status. Uplinks There have been 32 uplinks to the spacecraft during the last week, including new star catalogs and ephemeris files, instrument command loads, and the DS2 mini-sequences and MR turn on. Total command files radiated to the spacecraft since launch is 4156. Upcoming events Development of the next mapping sequence, mm010, begins December 2. ---------------------------------------------------------------- NEW MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR IMAGES By Ron Baalke 2 December 1999 The following new images were taken by the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft of the Mars Polar Lander landing site: Latest Color View of Polar Landing Site Mars Polar Lander Landing Zone Compared With JPL Geologic Features of the Mars Polar Lander Landing Ellipse The images resides on the Mars Global Surveyor web site at http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs/msss/camera/images/index.html The image captions are appended below. Mars Global Surveyor was launched in November 1996 and has been in Mars orbit since September 1997. It began its primary mapping mission on March 8, 1999. Mars Global Surveyor is the first mission in a long-term program of Mars exploration known as the Mars Surveyor Program that is managed by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS) and the California Institute of Technology built the MOC using spare hardware from the Mars Observer mission. MSSS operates the camera from its facilities in San Diego, CA. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Mars Surveyor Operations Project operates the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft with its industrial partner, Lockheed Martin Astronautics, from facilities in Pasadena, CA and Denver, CO. Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera Latest Color View of Polar Landing Site MGS MOC Release #MOC2-193, 2 December 1999 On December 3rd, Mars Polar Lander and the Deep Space 2 Microprobes (Scott and Amundsen) will land somewhere in the picture shown here. This Mars Global Survyeor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) wide-angle camera view of the polar landing ellipse was taken on November 28, 1999. Dark patches within the ellipse are sand and small fields of windblown sand dunes. The bright patches toward the top of the image are frost. It is late spring in this portion of the martian south polar region, and much of the winter frost has finally sublimed away. The ellipse center is located at 76°S 195°W. In this view, north is toward the bottom and sunlight illuminates the scene from the lower right. The image covers an area approximately 105 km (65 miles) wide by 335 km (210 miles) long. Images credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera Mars Polar Lander Landing Zone Compared With JPL MGS MOC Release #MOC2-192, 2 December 1999 What will Mars Polar Lander find when it reaches the red planet on December 3, 1999? The Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC)--currently operating in Mars orbit since September 1997--is providing some of our highest-resolution views of the planet ever obtained. MOC, in fact, can see objects the size of automobiles with its 1.5 meter (5 ft) per pixel capability. To give some sense of the nature of polar terrain in the vicinity of Mars Polar Lander's 76°S, 195°W landing zone, very high resolution MOC images are here compared with the "main campus" of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). JPL is located in Pasadena, California, and is part of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Together with partners Lockheed Martin Astronautics (Denver, CO), University of California-Los Angeles, The Planetary Society (Pasadena, CA), and Malin Space Science Systems (San Diego, CA), JPL is operating and managing the Mars Polar Lander and Deep Space 2 missions under contract from NASA. The three MOC images shown next to each view of JPL represent the three most abundant terrain types seen in the Mars Polar Lander landing ellipse--ridges and small knobs, ridges and gullies, and ridges and pits. Each is shown at the same scale as the buildings of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (1.5 m/pixel). Each image is about 400 meters (437 yards) across and is illuminated by sunlight from the lower right. MOC2-192a Subtle Ridges and Small Knobs Compared to Features of Similar Scale [Image] The picture on the left is a MOC image taken in mid- November 1999 near the west edge of Mars Polar Lander's landing ellipse. Many small, bright pinnacles or knobs are visible amid a few circular features and dark patches. The picture on the right shows a portion of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the same scale. Note that buildings and some trees can be discerned in the JPL photo. MOC2-192b Ridges and Gullies Compared to Features of Similar Scale [Image] Taken in November 1999 after the winter frost had finally cleared away, this view of typical ridged and gullied terrain in the Mars Polar Lander ellipse (left) is compared at the same scale with the buildings of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (right). A person standing in one of the gullies or cracks in the polar terrain would certainly notice that they are down in a hole! MOC2-192c Ridges and Pits Compared to Features of Similar Scale [Image] The image on the left shows a third sample of terrain in the Mars Polar Lander landing zone. This picture was acquired in mid/late November 1999 after the seasonal frost had sublimed away. The terrrain appears rugged but not nearly as rugged as the artificial terrain of buildings and sidewalks at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (right). Images credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera Geologic Features of the Mars Polar Lander Landing Ellipse MGS MOC Release #MOC2-191, 2 December 1999 What is Mars Polar Lander going to find when it touches down on December 3rd? The Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) has been providing some spectacular previews. The following series of 7 figures illustrates the variety of surface textures, terrains, and geologic features that are found in the landing ellipse located at 76°S 195°W. It is now late southern spring, and the frost that covered this region for most of 1999 has gone away. The focus here is upon a "tour" of a single MOC image obtained on November 26, 1999. In each figure below, the landing ellipse appears as a blue outline, the MOC image is drawn in orange, and the portion of the MOC image generally illustrated in each figure is yellow. The November 26th MOC image covers approximately 120 sq. km (75 sq. miles) of the central portion of the landing ellipse. The image is 3 km (1.9 mi) wide by 40 km (25 mi) long and has a resolution of about 4 meters (13 feet) per pixel. In each view, south is toward the top and the sun illuminates each scene from the lower right. The scale bar in each picture, 250 meters, is equal to 273 yards (820 ft). MOC2-191a Parallel Ridges with Rough Texture and Residual Frost [Image] This picture shows a set of parallel ridges trending from upper left to lower right, spaced about 250-500 meters (273-547 yards) from one another. The amplitude of these ridges is not known, but elsewhere they are less than 20 m (66 ft) high. The surface also has irregular, light-toned knobs that resemble large boulders or pinnacles. MOC2-191b Parallel Ridges and Mounds with Gullies and Irregular Pits A large portion of the landing ellipse (and the majority of the area seen in this image) is covered by parallel ridges surmounted by isolated groups of gullies and [Image] pits. The gully systems typically extend less than 500 meters (547 yards), and are often only a few hundred meters across. These gullies do not show the integration normal for fluid erosion (i.e., they were not carved by running water); instead, they have the form of cracks and depressions expanded by wall- and head-enlargement by processes such as sapping (removal of wall support by fluid seepage or the evaporation of ground ice) or ablation (removal of ices by sublimation and wind). MOC2-191c Low Relief with Subtle Depressions and Small Knobs [Image] Some areas show little or no topographic relief (i.e., the area is relatively flat with no hills, ridges, or gullies). One class of this type of surface displays small, subtle, isolated depressions and areas of the rough texture made up of light-toned patches of knobs that resemble large boulders or pinnacles. MOC2-191d Dark Sand Dunes and Bright Low Relief Surface with Gullies [Image] The darkest surface in the landing ellipse, now seen without its seasonal bright frost cover, shows the unmistakable form of dark sand dunes. This image shows the margin of the dune field that crosses the center of the MOC image. Note that in some places the sand depth is shallow and the shape and slopes of the underlying features can be seen. MOC2-191e Weakly-organized Ridges/Mounds and Gullies/Depressions [Image] The second-most abundant surface texture in this portion of the landing ellipse consists of poorly aligned ridges and depressions which occassionally display steep wall slopes. This surface appears rugged at the scale of tens of meters, but may be smoother at small scales (meters). MOC2-191f Smooth Surface with Occasional Ridges and Pits [Image] The southern-most portion of the November 26th MOC image shows a pattern of small, isolated ridges and a few irregular depressions and pits. However, much of the surface is actually quite smooth compared to other portions of the landing ellipse. MOC2-191g Representative Features of the Central Landing Ellipse [Image] This illustration shows a summary of the landforms seen within the November 26th MOC image in different colors. It is clear that the smoothest surface (green at bottom of frame) is rare in this part of the landing ellipse. Sand dunes (black) and really rough terrain (orange) are also fairly rare. Much of the surface is ridged with either gullies or pits. Images credit: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems ---------------------------------------------------------------- MARS POLAR LANDER MISSION STATUS REPORTS JPL releases November 30, 1999 Flight controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, report that the Mars Polar Lander spacecraft is in excellent health as it prepares for its arrival at the red planet on Friday. This morning at about 10 AM Pacific Time, the spacecraft performed a fourth scheduled maneuver to adjust its flight path. The lander fired its small thrusters for 12.6 seconds to adjust its speed by about 0.06 meters per second (about 1 mile per hour). The lander is currently traveling at a speed of 19,300 kilometers per hour (12,000 miles per hour). "The current estimates show that we are right on target," said Dr. Sam Thurman, flight operations manager for the lander at JPL. "The navigation team says we are very close to the target point for atmospheric entry on Friday. A large team has been working since Thanksgiving, doing everything that's necessary to get us on the proper flight path for a good entry position." When the spacecraft arrives at Mars, it must enter the atmosphere through a corridor that is 10 kilometers (6 miles) wide and 40 kilometers (25 miles) long and begins about 125 kilometers (78 miles) above the surface. Early Friday morning, the team will evaluate whether they need to perform an additional maneuver to fine-tune the landing. If needed, this final maneuver would take place on December 3, at 5:30 AM Pacific Time, about six hours prior to entry into the Martian atmosphere. Later today, the flight team will start the master sequence on the spacecraft that begins the countdown for the entry, decent, and landing activities. The lander is currently 3.5 million kilometers (about 2 million miles) from Mars, and is scheduled to land on Friday, December 3, shortly after noon Pacific Time. 2 December 1999 Twenty-four hours before the Mars Polar Lander is scheduled to arrive at the south pole of the red planet, flight controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, report that the spacecraft is making excellent progress as the team begins around-the-clock monitoring. Mars Polar Lander is scheduled to land on Mars shortly after noon Pacific Time on Friday, December 3. The first signal is expected to be received at 12:39 PM. The entry, descent, and landing sequence is the most complex and challenging part of the mission. Once the spacecraft is on the ground, a series of activities equally critical to the success of the mission will begin. If no communication is received from the lander at the first opportunity at 12:39 PM, there are many other windows during which the controllers may hear from the spacecraft during the next few days. Several factors could potentially delay the first contact without preventing later communication and the execution of the full mission. "The team will meet at 2 AM Pacific time Friday morning to review flight path estimates, then at 5:30 AM we will make any final course corrections," said Dr. Sam Thurman, flight operations manager for the lander at JPL. "Right now it appears the atmospheric entry angle is just a little steeper than we wanted, but it's still in the sweet spot. We have the luxury of examining the terrain and making minor adjustments to reach the safest part of the target area that the science team has been able to identify." During descent, the spacecraft will enter the martian atmosphere traveling at 6.9 kilometers per second (15,400 miles per hour). Onboard accelerometers will sense when friction from the atmosphere causes the lander to begin to slow. From that time, it will be 5 minutes and 30 seconds until touchdown on the surface, during which time the spacecraft will experience G forces up to 12 times Earth's gravity and the temperature of the heat shield's exterior will rise to 1,650° C (3,000 degrees F). "The powered descent phase is the biggest concern. The Martian atmosphere is not well known," said Thurman. "That's why we have focused most intensely on the design, testing, and verification of the powered descent and landing system. The key to minimizing risk is to build a lot of margin and robustness into the vehicle design." The Deep Space 2 microprobes, which are piggybacking on the lander, will be jettisoned to the planet about 5 minutes before the lander enters the martian atmosphere. Deep Space 2 Project Manager Sarah Gavit echoed Thurman's views, saying that a successful landing depends not only on how and where the probes enter the surface, but also the entry angle. "We used a variety of techniques, a lot of trial and error, and a rigorous test program, but the biggest risk is Mars itself," said Gavit. The goal of Deep Space 2 is to increase the efficiency and lower the costs of space science missions through new technologies. "All the new technologies on board make this a lot more risky than a typical spacecraft," said Gavit. "To make progress we need to be bold. That's what it's all about." 3 December 1999 5:00 AM PST Mars Polar Lander flight controllers opted to perform the last trajectory adjustment of the mission early this morning, sending commands to the spacecraft that will result in a short engine firing to target the spacecraft to the desired landing site near layered terrain in the red planet's south polar region. Mars Polar Lander is scheduled to land on Mars shortly after noon Pacific time on Friday, December 3. The first signal is expected to be received at 12:39 PM. The entry, descent, and landing sequence is the most complex and risky part of the mission. The engine firing will take place at 5:39 AM Pacific Time for 8 seconds, said flight operations manager Dr. Sam Thurman. "This maneuver will increase the entry flight path angle by 0.25 degrees, moving the flight path from our most recent estimate, 12 hours prior to entry, of minus 13 degrees back to the target value of minus 13.25 degrees," Thurman said. "We decided to perform the maneuver in order to ensure that the entry flight path achieved will be very close to the planned trajectory. It puts is just about right on top of the target point, which is in an area chosen because the terrain provides for a safe touchdown." During descent, the spacecraft will enter the martian atmosphere traveling at 6.9 kilometers per second (15,400 miles per hour). Onboard accelerometers will sense when friction from the atmosphere causes the lander to slow. From that time, it will be approximately 5 minutes and 30 seconds until touchdown on the surface, during which time the spacecraft will experience G forces up to 12 times Earth's gravity and the temperature of the heat shield's exterior will rise to 1,650°C (3,000 degrees F). The Deep Space 2 microprobes, which are piggybacking on the lander, will be jettisoned to the planet about 5 minutes before the lander enters the martian atmosphere. They will impact the martian surface about 60 kilometers (about 30 miles) away from spot where Mars Polar Lander will set down. 3 December 1999, 11:00 AM PST NASA's Mars Polar Lander is performing flawlessly and poised to land on the layered terrain near the red planet's south polar region shortly after noon Pacific time today, the mission team reported. The Mars Polar Lander navigation team reported on the success of this morning's trajectory adjustment, which took place at 5:39 AM PST. "It seems to be coming in pretty much right on the target line," said Michael Watkins, manager of JPL's navigation and mission design section. Flight controllers opted to perform the final trajectory adjustment of the mission early this morning. "It was as smooth and clean a maneuver as we've done," said Project Manager Richard Cook. "We're a gnat's eyelash away from our target." Wind speeds at NASA's Deep Space Network complex at Goldstone, CA, were expected to remain in an acceptable range and not force stowage of the large antennas used to receive Polar Lander's signal after landing, Cook said. Winds in the range of about 32 kilometers (20 mph) were reported. The antennas would be stowed if there were sustained winds of about 80 kilometers per hour (50 mph) or gusts from about 73 to 88 kilometers per hour (45-55 mph). The entry, descent and landing sequence is the most complex and risky part of the mission. During descent, the spacecraft will enter the martian atmosphere traveling at 6.9 kilometers per second (15,400 miles per hour). Onboard accelerometers will sense when friction from the atmosphere causes the lander to slow. From that time, it will be approximately 5 minutes and 30 seconds until touchdown on the surface, during which time the spacecraft will experience G forces up to 12 times Earth's gravity and the temperature of the heat shield's exterior will rise to 1,650°C (3,000 degrees F). Based on images from the camera on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor, the landing site, near the south polar layered terrain is expected to be devoid of rocks, generally flat and rolling, and fields of sand or dust dunes may be present, said Polar Lander Project Scientist Dr. Richard Zurek. The Deep Space 2 microprobes, which are piggybacking on the lander, will be jettisoned to the planet about 5 minutes before the lander enters the martian atmosphere. They will impact the martian surface about 60 kilometers (about 35 miles) northwest from spot where Mars Polar Lander will set down. The probes, called Scott and Amundsen after early Antarctic explorers, will hit the Mars surface about 1 kilometer (less than a mile) from each other. The earliest signal from the spacecraft on Mars would be received at 12:39 PM PST, said Cook. 3 December 1999, 5:00 PM PST Mission controllers for NASA's Mars Polar Lander mission are awaiting the next opportunity to communicate with the spacecraft, whose transmissions have not yet been received since it landed on Mars shortly after noon Pacific time today. "I'm very confident the lander survived the descent," said Mars Polar Lander Project Manager Richard Cook at JPL. "Everything looked very good. I think we're a long way from getting concerned. It is not unexpected that we would not hear from it during the first opportunity." A variety of hardware problems from which the lander could recover may be responsible for the delay in initial telecommunications. During the last telecommunications opportunity, which began at 2:04 PM PST, the spacecraft would have automatically moved its steerable antenna in a search pattern designed to find the Earth. The next communications window opens at 6:27 PM PST today when the team will again send commands to the lander instructing it to maneuver its medium gain antenna in another attempt to look for Earth. The lander would then carry out that procedure to transmit to Earth beginning at 8:08 PM until 10:40 PM tonight. Even if no transmissions are heard today mission controllers have another opportunity to hear from the lander on Saturday. This is the time the spacecraft would be transmitting if it went into a safe mode shortly after landing. Engineers would also listen for it on Sunday evening, when the spacecraft would automatically switch to its UHF radio and transmit via Mars Global Surveyor. After that, they will send commands instructing the spacecraft to swap between various hardware subsystems in case one is damaged. The Deep Space 2 microprobes, which impacted Mars about 60 kilometers (about 35 miles) from the lander, will transmit data through Mars Global Surveyor. The team will be listening tonight at about 7:30 PM when contact is expected with the microprobes. The flight team's best flight path estimates are that lander most likely touched down at about 76.1 degrees south latitude, 195.3 degrees west longitude. The estimates for the Deep Space 2 microprobe impacts are 75.0 degrees south latitude, 163.5 degrees east longitude with the two probes being separated from each other by only a few kilometers. 4 December 1999, 5:45 PM PST Flight controllers for NASA's Mars Polar Lander have another opportunity to listen for a signal from the spacecraft beginning tonight at 8:30 PM PST. In a meeting late this afternoon they decided to listen for the lander during the first 30 minutes of the communications window, then they would transmit commands to the medium-gain antenna telling the spacecraft to search for Earth. One scenario that would explain why engineers have not yet heard from the lander is that the spacecraft entered standby, or "safe mode," about 20 minutes after landing shortly after 12 noon PST Friday, December 3. If the lander entered safe mode at that time, it would not be able to receive any communication until it "wakes up" this evening. It would be preprogrammed by onboard software to start looking for Earth starting at noon on Mars, or about 8:30 PM PST. The communication window lasts until 10:45 PM PST. If contact has not been established by Sunday morning, December 5, flight controllers will listen to see if the lander transmits via a UHF radio to the currently orbiting Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft. The lander would do that at about 10:50 AM PST Sunday if it did not receive commands from Earth telling it not to do so. Engineers working on NASA's Deep Space 2 microprobes have additional opportunities to hear from the probes this evening at about 5:30 PM and 7:30 PM PST through the Global Surveyor relay. The probes would automatically begin to transmit at those times if their radio receivers were unable to pick up commands from Global Surveyor. 4 December 1999, 11:15 PM PST Mission controllers for NASA's Mars Polar Lander are proceeding with their checklist in a continuing attempt to communicate with the spacecraft. On Sunday, December 5 from 10:50 to 11:00 AM Pacific Standard Time, they will try to hear the lander's signal by using NASA's currently-orbiting Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft as a relay system for the lander's UHF radio. Until this point, engineers have tried to reach the lander via its medium gain antenna. Controllers did not hear from the spacecraft during a communications opportunity on Saturday, December 4 at 8:30 PM PST. They hoped to make contact during that window if, after landing, the spacecraft had successfully pointed its antenna toward Earth, then entered a safe, or standby mode. "Now we can cross that scenario off the list," said Mars Polar Lander project manager Richard Cook of JPL. "We're ready to move on to the next possibility on Sunday morning, which we hope will work if the spacecraft is not in safe mode, but has its antenna pointed incorrectly. We're sprouting ideas as we go along about how to contact the lander." If contact is not established during that attempt, additional attempts scheduled at this point will be made as follows: Sunday, December 5, from 10:10 to 11:10 PM using the lander's medium gain antenna scan if it is in safe mode but its antenna is not pointed correctly. Tuesday, December 7, at 12:20 PM PST using Mars Global Surveyor if Mars Polar Lander is in safe mode. Analysis of the landing site reveals the spacecraft would have touched down within 10 kilometers (6 miles) of the target site on the martian south pole, according to Dr. Sam Thurman at JPL, the lander's flight operations manager. He said they see no surface features that would obstruct the lander's view of Earth and therefore hamper its communications capabilities. Engineers for the Deep Space 2 microprobes are continuing their attempts to communicate with the probes every two hours. The microprobes, designed to impact Mars about 60 kilometers (about 35 miles) north of the lander, will transmit data through Mars Global Surveyor. "The probes may have arrived in an area of high slopes, rough terrain or sand dunes," said Deep Space 2 project manager Sarah Gavit. Mission engineers believe the probes have entered a phase where they broadcast their data automatically for one minute out of every five. "It's also possible that the probes' batteries have not warmed sufficiently to power up the communications system. We're checking into all possibilities." 5 December 1999 Mission controllers for NASA's Mars Polar Lander have revised their strategy as they continue trying to make contact with the spacecraft. "We're nearing the point where we've used up our final silver bullets," said the mission's project manager, Richard Cook of JPL, after Sunday night's unsuccessful attempt to communicate with the spacecraft. Engineers will try to contact the lander again on Tuesday, December 7 at 12:20 AM Pacific Standard Time, by directing Mars Polar Lander to use its UHF radio to communicate through a relay system onboard NASA's currently-orbiting Mars Global Surveyor. Most of the attempts to receive a signal from the lander over the past few days have used its medium gain antenna. "Our probability of success will diminish significantly after this next attempt," Cook said, "but the team is still exploring all possibilities for establishing comunications with the lander." Controllers are preparing a set of computer commands to have the lander conduct a full sky search for Earth within the next couple of days. Another telecommunications strategy to hear from NASA's Mars Polar Lander produced no results today, but the mission flight team is proceeding through its contingency checklist in continuing attempts to communicate with the spacecraft. From about 11 to 11:30 AM PST today, the team listened for but detected no signals from the lander's UHF transmitter, which would have been relayed through the already-orbiting Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft. This was the first attempt at using the Global Surveyor; until then, engineers had tried to use the lander's medium gain antenna to transmit directly to Earth. "We continue to work through our plan, which gives us confidence that we haven't exhausted all the possibilities," said Mars Polar Lander Project Manager Richard Cook. "But clearly, the team is getting more frustrated" as attempts to reach the lander yield no results. No contact has yet been made in continuing efforts to communicate with the two Deep Space 2 Mars microprobes that also impacted Mars about 60 kilometers (abut 35 miles) north of the lander on Dec. 3, said Deep Space 2 Project Manager Sarah Gavit. Mission engineers believe the probes have entered a phase where they broadcast their data automatically for one minute out of every five. Gavit said that data from last night's try at hearing signals from the probes that could have been recorded on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor orbiter would be reviewed later today. The team will also look for microprobe signals that could be relayed by Global Surveyor during another transmission today, she said. "If we haven't heard from them in the next 24 hours (by about noon Monday PST), we will have exhausted our opportunities to hear from them." Tonight, Sunday, December 5 from 10:10 to 11:10 PM, an attempt will be made to listen for signals from the lander that would be sent through its medium gain antenna if the lander is in safe, or standby mode, and its antenna is not pointed correctly. On Tuesday, December 7, at 12:20 AM PST, attempts to hear signals from the lander's UHF transmitter will be made again using Mars Global Surveyor. This attempt would detect signals if Polar Lander is in safe mode. After Tuesday's post-midnight attempt, Cook said, "I think we will be at the point of diminishing returns in terms of getting in contact with the lander." Mars Polar Lander is part of a series of missions in a long- term program of Mars exploration managed by JPL for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. JPL's industrial partner is Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. ---------------------------------------------------------------- End Marsbugs Vol. 6, No. 40