23, 1999, the orbiter began its Mars orbit insertion burn as planned. 21, 1998, and March 4, July 25 and Sept. It performed four course corrections: Dec. 15, 2001, Mars Climate Orbiter would have acted as a communications relay for future NASA missions to Mars.Īfter launch, the spacecraft was put into a Hohmann transfer orbit to intersect with Mars. After the end of its main mapping mission Jan. Scientists hoped that such information would aid in reconstructing Mars’ climatic history and provide evidence of buried water reserves. After the lander’s mission (lasting three months ), MCO would have performed a two-year independent mission to monitor atmospheric dust and water vapor and take daily pictures of the planet’s surface to construct an evolutionary map of climatic changes. The satellite was also designed to serve as a communications relay for the Mars Polar Lander. MCO would then reach its operational near-circular Sun-synchronous orbit at about 260 miles (421 kilometers) by Dec. Mars Climate Orbiter was designed to arrive at roughly the same time as Mars Polar Lander and to conduct simultaneous investigations of Mars’ atmosphere, climate and surface. Mars Climate Orbiter (MCO) was the second probe in NASA ’s Mars Surveyor program, which also included the Mars Global Surveyor (launched in November 1996) and Mars Polar Lander (launched in January 1999). 23, 1999: Spacecraft lost In Depth: Mars Climate Orbiter Mars Color Imaging System (Two Cameras) (MARCI) Pressure Modulated Infrared Radiometer (PMIRR)Ģ. The mission was unsuccessful due to a navigation error caused by a failure to translate English units to metric.Ĭape Canaveral, Fla. ![]() ![]() NASA's Mars Climate Orbiter was designed to study Mars from orbit and to serve as a communications relay for the Mars Polar Lander and Deep Space probes.
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