Panel Will Study Mars Global Surveyor Events
Artist's concept of Mars Global Surveyor. Image credit: NASA/JPL
January 10, 2007
NASA has formed an internal review board to look more in-depth
into why NASA's Mars Global Surveyor went silent in November 2006
and recommend any processes or procedures that could increase
safety for other spacecraft.
Mars Global Surveyor launched in 1996 on a mission designed to study
Mars from orbit for two years. It accomplished many important
discoveries during nine years in orbit. On Nov. 2, the spacecraft
transmitted information that one of its arrays was not pivoting as
commanded. Loss of signal from the orbiter began on the following orbit.
Mars Global Surveyor has operated longer at Mars than any other spacecraft
in history and for more than four times as long as the prime mission
originally planned.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages Mars Global
Surveyor for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, Washington. JPL is a
division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. Lockheed
Martin Space Systems, Denver, developed and operates the spacecraft.
Information about the mission is available on the Internet at:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/mgs/index.html .
Media contacts: Guy Webster 818-354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
Dwayne Brown 202-358-1237/1726
NASA Headquarters, Washington
2007-004
