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A Mars-bound lander that disappeared 10 years ago and has yet to be found may be hidden in an image such as this. Mission controllers lost contact with the Mars Polar Lander (MPL) in December 1999 as the probe descended toward the Martian surface. A review board later determined that a premature shutdown of the descent engines, while the lander was still 40 meters above the surface, probably caused the loss of MPL.
Since the accident, NASA orbiters such as the Mars Global Surveyor and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have searched the south polar region where MPL likely wrecked, in the hopes that photographic evidence from the crash site might provide some concrete answers about what happened. And in 2005 it appeared that NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft might have found MPL's remains. A report that year in Sky & Telescope presented images thought to be of the lander and its parachute, but later photographs showed the site to actually be barren.
This image, taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) on August 24, is a crop of a much larger photo of a southern swath near the MPL's presumed resting place. The images, from the MRO's powerful HiRISE camera, have a resolution of about 25 centimeters per pixel, but if MPL is in the target region it is well camouflaged, as it has yet to be found. Even with the help of HiRISE, the location of the Mars Polar Lander remains a mystery.
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6 Comments
Add CommentWhile knowing where MPL went down may be marginally useful if images good enough to assist in the analysis of why it crashed can be obtained, that seems very unlikely. The success of the rovers and more recent probes shows that robotic craft can obtain highly significant science. The risk of catastrophic failure to human explorers from a MPL type event and the unquestioned success of robotic exploration should prove to us that it is a mistake to concentrate on human space exploration rather than robotic, at least in the near term.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisthe lack of daring and resolve expressed here is completely unfortunate. catastrophy is handmaiden to progress for humanity. our destiny is to penetrate the universe. of course, there will be a price. was it not ever so? robots will NOT do the job: were it not for human motives to explore and investigate first hand, there would be no science at all.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFinding the wreckage will be good experience. If a manned mission loses communication before landing it would be good to be able to find them quickly enough to know where to send a rescue ship. (Maybe a lifeboat lander kept in orbit in case of such an occurrence.)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf we want to recover live astronauts we better get the techniques down. Emergency locator beacons can fail too.
I told yyou people years age that I had spotted adebries field North and West (about a 1000 yards) from that heart shaped featurenear the South Pole. To be exact, the point of impact is at 11:00 from the nothern point of the heart. I stumbled onto the field while measuring the heart featurs which by the way is symettrical. The point of impact point north by north west and is about 400-500 yards in a funnel shaped configuration and to reiterate, about 1000 yards from the northwestern point of the heart shaped feature at the south pole area.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI told you guys about a debries field I stumbled onto years ago. I was measuring the heart shaped feature near the south pole when I noticed the debries field. It is located 1000 yards from the northernmost point of the heart. It runs in a funnel shape from the point of impact . Take a look!!!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thiswhere can I find the picture of the heart shape.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThanks...botree