MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov
Mars Polar Lander Mission Status
December 5, 1999
Mission controllers for NASA's Mars Polar Lander have
revised their strategy as they continue trying to make contact
with the spacecraft.
"We're nearing the point where we've used up our final
silver bullets," said the mission's project manager, Richard Cook
of JPL, after Sunday night's unsuccessful attempt to communicate
with the spacecraft.
Engineers will try to contact the lander again on Tuesday,
Dec. 7 at 12:20 a.m. Pacific Standard Time, by directing Mars
Polar Lander to use its UHF radio to communicate through a relay
system onboard NASA's currently-orbiting Mars Global Surveyor.
Most of the attempts to receive a signal from the lander over the
past few days have used its medium gain antenna.
"Our probability of success will diminish significantly
after this next attempt," Cook said, "but the team is still
exploring all possibilities for establishing comunications with
the lander."
Controllers are preparing a set of computer commands to have
the lander conduct a full sky search for Earth within the next
couple of days.
Mars Polar Lander is part of a series of missions in a long-
term program of Mars exploration managed by JPL for NASA's Office
of Space Science, Washington, D.C. JPL's industrial partner is
Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver. JPL is a division of the
California Institute of Technology in Pasadena.
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