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The New Millennium Program's Deep Space 2 mission, which launched in January 1999, is
sending two highly advanced miniature probes to Mars. They will be the first spacecraft
ever to penetrate below the surface of another planet. Each probe weighs just 2.4 kg
(5.3 lb) and is encased in a protective shell (called an aeroshell). They are catching
a ride to Mars aboard another spacecraft, the Mars Polar Lander. Upon arrival just
above the south polar region of Mars on December 3, 1999, the basketball-sized shells
will be released from the main spacecraft and plummet through the atmosphere, hitting
the planet's surface at over 644 km/hr (400 mph). On impact, each shell will shatter,
and its grapefruit-sized probe will punch through the soil and separate into two parts.
The lower part, called the forebody, will penetrate as far as 0.6 meters (about 2 feet)
into the soil; the upper part of the probe, or the aftbody, will stay on the surface
to radio data to the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft, currently in orbit around Mars,
which will then send the data to Earth.
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This page last updated: October 29, 1999
For comments and suggestions, or to request
additional information
please contact:
| Deep Space 2 Outreach and Education |
| Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
| 4800 Oak Grove Avenue |
| M/S 301-235 |
| Pasadena, CA 91109 |
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