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Mars Climate Orbiter Main Content
NASA Center: Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Image # : M98ORBITER
Date : 05/27/1998

Title

Mars Climate Orbiter

Full Description

The Mars Surveyor '98 Climate Orbiter is shown here during acoustic tests that simulate launch conditions. The orbiter was to conduct a two year primary mission to profile the Martian atmosphere and map the surface. To carry out these scientific objectives, the spacecraft carried a rebuilt version of the pressure modulated infrared radiometer, lost with the Mars Observer spacecraft, and a miniaturized dual camera system the size of a pair of binoculars, provided by Malin Space Science Systems, Inc., San Diego, California. During its primary mission, the orbiter was to monitor Mars atmosphere and surface globally on a daily basis for one Martian year (two Earth years), observing the appearance and movement of atmospheric dust and water vapor, as well as characterizing seasonal changes of the planet's surface. Imaging of the surface morphology would also provide important clues about the planet's climate in its early history. The mission was part of NASA's Mars Surveyor program, a sustained program of robotic exploration of the red planet, managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, DC. Lockheed Martin Astronautics was NASA's industrial partner in the mission. Unfortunately, Mars Climate Orbiter burned up in the Martian atmosphere on September 23, 1999, due to a metric conversion error that caused the spacecraft to be off course.

Keywords

Mars Suveyor 98 Climate Orbiter Lockheed Martin Astronautics Denver Colorado Malin Space Science Systems

Subject Category

Planet-Mars, Mars Probes,

Reference Numbers

  • Center: JPL
  • Center Number: M98ORBITER
  • GRIN DataBase Number: GPN-2000-000498

Source Information

  • Creator/Photographer: Lockheed Martin
  • Original Source: DIGITAL

Image Information ( Copyright Notification )

ResolutionFormatWidth
(Pixels)		Height
(Pixels)		Size
(KBytes)
Thumbnail .jpg 73 95 20
Small .jpg 522 682 439
Medium .jpg 1223 1598 1,922
Large .jpg 2446 3196 7,183

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