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1993-05-03
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PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
Contact: Jim Doyle/JPL
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 4, 1992
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is planning a project to
send 16 small landers to the surface of Mars beginning late in
this decade, it was announced today.
JPL's planners also were exploring the possibility of a 1996
launch option that would place a small instrumented lander on
Mars, possibly with a surface roving vehicle.
Pre-project planning for the 16-lander Mars Environmental
Survey (MESUR) mission is underway at JPL. Tony Spear, formerly
manager of the Magellan Project, is managing MESUR.
MESUR is the next planned mission to Mars after Mars
Observer scheduled for launch later this year, and will complete
global reconnaissance of the planet by providing surface
measurements at a number of sites that would complement Mars
Observer studies.
The mission would send 16 landers in four separate launches
to be distributed on the surface to make both short- and long-
term measurements of the atmosphere, surface and interior, Spear
said.
The short-term measurements include the upper and middle
atmosphere during entry, descent and surface imaging, and
analysis of soil and rocks for elemental and mineral chemistry.
The long-term measurements include seismometry and weather
observations that require simultaneous measurements by the whole
network of landers for at least one Martian year (687 Earth
days).
The network of instrumented landers would be deployed over
three Mars launch opportunities. Four landers would be sent in
January 1999 on a single launch vehicle and arrive in December
1999. Four more would go in April 2001 with arrival in January
2002, and the final eight would be launched in May 2003 with
arrival in December of the same year.
A dedicated communications orbiter to relay data to Earth
would be launched also in 2001. The network would be complete in
the year 2003 and the end of the mission would be in 2005. That
would require the first four landers to operate for 6 years on
the surface of Mars, the second four landers for 4 years and the
final eight landers for 2 years.
Spear said evolving technology in microdevices would make it
possible to package smaller less-costly instruments and sensors
on the landers, and it would be less expensive to send a fleet of
small landers than to send one or two large craft.
The 1996 launch option to land a small robotic lander with a
rover on the surface of Mars would be a precursor to MESUR, Spear
said. The instrumented rover would have a camera and other
sensors to look for subsurface water and test the reactivity of
the soil.
Instruments on the Viking landers in the late 1970s
indicated Martian soil was highly oxidizing, possibly as a result
of solar ultraviolet radiation, and might be harmful to organic
substances.
The 1996 mission would be a cooperative effort by NASA's
Office of Space Science and Applications and the Office of
Exploration.
_____
#1429
3/4/92 jjd