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3 Dec 99 : No signals were received from Mars
Polar Lander at the expected time. Subsequent tries at communication
up until mid-February 2000 have proved equally 'quiet'. Ideas
about what happened to the craft range include: it landed
on a rock and rolled over, or it landed on a steep slope and
rolled over, or possibly the rockets failed on descent and
it smashed into the surface.
IN AN IDEAL WORLD: the descent was parachute
and rocket assisted and the craft landed gently on the surface.
Then the experiments would have begun...
There are three scientific packages on board:
1. The Mars descent imager - to view the landing
site at higher and higher resolution.
2. The Atmospheric Lidar Experiment - (Russian)
to monitor the presence and height of atmospheric hazes; the
first Russian instrument to fly on a US planetary mission.
There will also be a Microphone from the Planetary Society
to record the sounds of Mars. The microphone, suggested by
Carl Sagan President of the Society, will be the first scientific
instrument funded by the public to be flown on a planetary
mission. 'It was kind of a neat idea,' Weller said. 'We don't
know what we are going to hear, except I don't think we are
going to hear Elvis.' The UC Berkeley team of Janet Luhmann,
Dave Curtis, and Greg Delory built the Mars Microphone from
mostly off-the-shelf parts, including a microphone used in
hearing aids and a microprocessor chip used in speech-recognition
devices and talking toys.
3. The Mars Volatile and Climate
Surveyor (MVACS) - including a stereo camera (Pathfinder's
twin), a 2m robotic arm (a close-up camera) for digging up
to 1m below the surface, and two tiny ovens, each the size
of a piece of macaroni, to cook the alien soil. The overall
goal for the 90-day MVACS mission is to study the distribution
and behaviour of water on Mars and the history of the Martian
climate. 'Where has the water gone?' 'Biology has taught us
that if you have water and energy and some organic compounds
you can produce life even in the most extreme environments,'
said Ed Weller, NASA's head of space science. Due to the loss
of Mars Climate Observer communications was to have been made
directly with the Earth via the antenna as wells as via Mars
Global Surveyor.
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'We don't know
what we are going to hear, except I don't think we are going
to hear Elvis.'
(OR ANYTHING
ELSE!)
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