March Lander Whodunnit

The probe Mars Whodunnit Lander formed integral part of the program Mars Surveyor 98 of NASA. This probe, intended to be posed on Martian ground, included/understood also a penetrant (baptized Deep Space 2 ) intended to probe the ground of planet. The space agency envisaged to send two probes separately. Mars Climate Orbiter (also called Surveyor Mars '98 ) was the second major element of this program. This last probe was intended to remain in orbit.

The purpose of these two missions were to study the Martian Météorologie, its Climat, to measure the quantities of Eau and carbon dioxide, in order to locate possible aquiferous tanks. The objective was better to know the climate changes of the Martian history, on the court and the long run. The communications with Mars Whodunnit Lander were lost at the time of the atmospheric Rentrée.

Loss of the undercarriage

The last telemetric data of Mars Whodunnit Lander were sent right before the entry of the probe in the Martian atmosphere (the December 3rd 1999). Since then, no signal was accepted undercarriage. The precise cause of the loss of the lander remains unknown.

A data-processing error is the most probable cause of the failure of this mission. The vibrations pulled by the deployment of the feet of the probe were badly interpreted by the software of edge, which considered that these vibrations were the sign of an arrival on the Martian ground. The engines intended to slow down the descent of the probe were cut prematurely, whereas the probe was still to 40 meters surface.

With the end of the year 1999, then at the beginning of the year 2000, the persons in charge of the mission tried to detect possible remains present at the surface of Mars, thanks to the orbitor Mars Global Surveyor . These attempts failed, but a meticulous re-examination of the images of MGS in 2005, paid by the anglophone magazine '' Sky and Telescope '' left think that the probe and its parachute had been localized. In spite of that, photographs of high-resolution revealed that this interpretation was erroneous. Mars Whodunnit Lander thus remains untraceable. NASA hopes that the cameras with very high-resolution embarked on the vessel Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will be able to make it possible to locate the undercarriage definitively.

Description of the mission

Mars Whodunnit Lander and probes it Deep Space 2 were launched thanks to a rocket Delta 7425 (a version reduced of the rocket Delta II). The probes were placed on a low orbit of waiting. The engines of the third stage of the rocket burned their fuel during 88 seconds, the January 3rd 1999 with 20:57 UTC, in order to put the vessel on a Orbite of interplanetary transfer. The probe separated from the third stage to 21:03 UTC. Operations of correction of trajectory were carried out during the voyage: the January 21st, the March 15th, the first September, the October 30th, and the November 30th 1999.

After a voyage eleven months, the probe Mars Whodunnit Lander reached Mars the December 3rd 1999.

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