MANY MARS MISSIONS FAIL
96-12-04 16:40:19 EST
Source: AOLNewsProfiles@aol.net
.c The Associated Press
If history is any guide, NASA will be lucky if the Mars
Pathfinder arrives safely at the Red Planet and completes it
mission.
Consider:
Since the first Mars probe was launched by the Russians in 1962,
only six Mars missions have succeeded, all of them American. The
last two successes were the twin Viking missions, launched in 1975.
Thirteen Mars missions have failed, most recently the Russian
spacecraft that plummeted from orbit shortly after its Nov. 16
launch. A 14th mission got some data back but was pretty much a
bust, too.
``We sort of make a joke about the great galactic ghoul that
sits out there,'' said Curtis Cleven, launch operations manager for
Pathfinder.
So far, everything's going well with NASA's Mars Global
Surveyor, launched Nov. 7 and due at Mars on Sept. 12, 1997. A
solar panel has yet to extend fully, but engineers say they can
work around the problem.
Pathfinder has a possible sun-sensor problem, but NASA officials
said they can probably work around it.
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