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The Mars Surveyor '98 program is the next generation of spacecraft to be sent to Mars. Consisting of an orbiter and lander launched separately on Med-Lite launch vehicles (Delta 7425 configuration), the Mars '98 mission will add to the knowlege gained by the Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Pathfinder missions. The general science theme for the 1998 Surveyor misions is "Volatiles and Climate History." The Mars 98 orbiter will launch in December 1998 and arrive at Mars 10 months later. Upon arrival at Mars, the spacecraft will use a series of aerobraking maneuvers to achieve a stable orbit, and then use atmospheric instruments and cameras to provide detailed information about the surface and climate of Mars. The Mars 98 lander will launch a month after the orbiter and will land near the southern polar cap on Mars. The lander is equipped with cameras, a robotics arms and instruments to measure the Martian soil composition. Two small microprobes are also piggybacking on the lander, which will penetrate into the Martian subsurface to detect water ice. The lander and orbiter missions are both managed by the 1998 Mars Surveyor Project at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA. The 1998 Surveyor spacecraft is being procured from Lockheed Martin Astronautics of Denver, Colorado, via a single system contract for both the lander and orbiter flight systems.
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