- A year behind schedule but no worse for
the wear, NASA's Mars Global Surveyor is finally in position to begin mapping
the Red Planet.
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- The spacecraft, launched in 1996 as a
companion spacecraft to Mars Pathfinder, will spend an entire Martian year
-- 687 Earth days -- photographing the planet for future expeditions. The
survey was delayed so engineers could delicately lower the probe into its
proper orbit.
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- The positioning technique, called aerobraking,
involved dipping the spacecraft's solar panel into the thin Martian atmosphere
like a paddle to gradually dissipate speed and reshape its orbit. The work
was complicated by a structural problem with the solar panel that forced
spacecraft operators to aerobrake the spacecraft extremely gently and slowly.
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- "It has been a long and arduous
task that has turned into a valuable learning experience for all of us,"
says Glenn Cunningham, deputy director of the Mars Exploration Program
at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "The use of aerobraking has been
a pioneering operation for a spacecraft at Mars, and we now know that we
can use this technique with confidence for future Mars missions."
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- Mars Global Surveyor will spend the next
two weeks drifting into what's called a sun-synchronous orbit so the spacecraft
will cross the Martian equator every day at about 2 a.m. local solar time.
In addition to mapping, the satellite will study the planet's topography,
magnetic fields, mineral composition and atmosphere. It also will serve
as a communications relay for the Mars Polar Lander, which is scheduled
to arrive on Mars Dec. 3.
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