Profiles Index - page 2

Mars Polar Lander Mission Information
The Mars Surveyor '98 program is comprised of two spacecraft launched separately, the Mars Climate Orbiter and the Mars Polar Lander. The two missions were designed to study the Martian weather, climate, and water and carbon dioxide budget, in order to understand the reservoirs, behavior, and atmospheric role of volatiles and to search for evidence of long-term and episodic climate changes. The last telemetry from Mars Polar Lander was sent just prior to atmospheric entry on 3 December 1999.

Nozomi Mission Information
Nozomi (right) was Japan's first mission to another planet. Nozomi means hope in Japanese. Before launch, it was known as Planet-B. The orbiter weighed 541 kg (1,193 pounds), including fuel. Intended to be Japan's first Mars orbiter, Nozomi was Japan's fourth "deep space" probe. Nozomi was to be inserted into a highly eccentric Mars orbit with a periapsis 300 km above the surface, an apoapsis of 15 Mars radii, and an inclination of 170 degrees with respect to the ecliptic plane.

Mars Pathfinder Mission Information
The rover was named in honor of Sojourner Truth (right), a 19th century abolitionist and champion of women's rights. The name was suggested by Valerie Ambroise, 12, of Bridgeport, CT. Other suggestions included Sacagawea, Athena and Thumbelina. Sojourner rover operated for 84 days - 12 times longer than its designed lifetime of seven days. The Mars Pathfinder was the second of NASA's low-cost planetary Discovery missions to be launched.

Mars Observer Mission Information
Seventeen years after the successful Viking 1 and Viking 2 missions, Mars Observer, the first of the Observer series of planetary missions, was designed to study the geoscience and climate of Mars. It was designed to carry out a high-resolution photography mission of the Red Planet over the course of a Martian year (687 days) from a 378 x 350-kilometer polar orbit.

Fobos 1 Mission Information
Fobos 1, and its companion spacecraft Fobos 2, were the next-generation in the Venera-type planetary missions, succeeding those last used during the Vega 1 and 2 missions to comet P/Halley. Each spacecraft, with a newly designed bus, carried twenty-four experiments provided by thirteen countries and the European Space Agency.

International Sun-Earth Explorer 3 - International Cometary Explorer
The International Sun-Earth Explorer 3's was the 3rd of a trio of spacecraft sent into space to study interplanetary space. Among its accomplishments was being the first spacecraft orbit at a libration point as well as the first to detect the solar wind approaching Earth. Later, it was renamed International Cometary Explorer and sent to study comet Giacbini-Zinner and comet Halley. It was the first spacecraft to fly past a comet, flying through the tail of comet Giacobini-Zinner.

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