Mars Global Surveyor Camera
Delivered to Lockheed Martin
One of the first of the Mars
Global Surveyor science instruments -- a camera sporting the highest
resolution capability ever flown to orbit another planet -- has been delivered
to Lockheed Martin Astronautics Corporation's Denver facility for integration
and testing aboard NASA's new Mars Global Surveyor orbiter.
The Mars Global Surveyor Orbital Camera delivered to
Lockheed Martin of Denver for integration onto the spacecraft
The camera, built by Dr. Michael Malin of Malin Space Science Systems, Inc.,
San Diego, CA, and the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, CA,
is one of six science instruments that will be delivered to Lockheed Martin,
NASA's industrial partner for the 1996 Mars Global Surveyor mission. The
first of the Surveyor instruments to undergo installation on the spacecraft
last summer was the ultra-stable
oscillator, delivered in July and designed to be used as part of Surveyor's
radio science investigations.
Mars Global Surveyor is a scaled-down version of the Mars Observer orbiter,
designed to acquire global maps of the Martian surface, profile the planet's
atmosphere, and study the nature of its magnetic field. The spacecraft is
scheduled to be launched from Cape Canaveral, FL, aboard a McDonnell Douglas
Delta 7925 launch vehicle on November 5, 1996. After a 10-month cruise,
the spacecraft will enter orbit around Mars on September 11, 1997, and spend
six months gradually lowering itself into a nearly circular mapping orbit
400 kilometers (250 miles) above the Martian surface.
The Mars Orbiter Camera will be able to obtain high-resolution images 10
times better than any previous Mars orbiting camera, Malin said. Individual
photographs of Mars will be sharp enough to show small geologic features
(such as boulders and sand dunes) and cover as much as 45 square kilometers
(20 square miles). Tens of thousands of images are planned during the two-year
mission.
"Each individual picture cell will cover less than 1.5 meters (5 feet),
permitting the camera to distinguish surface features as small as 3-1/4
meters (10 feet) across," Malin said. "This is about 100 times
better than most of the Viking pictures of Mars obtained in the mid-1970s."
The camera is a replica of the camera flown on the Mars Observer spacecraft,
which was lost three days before entering orbit around Mars in August 1993.
In addition to its high-resolution imaging capability, the instrument also
incorporates a low-resolution color system to create daily global maps very
similar to those produced by Earth-orbiting weather satellites.
Designed specifically to meet the demanding weight, power, and data rate
restrictions of planetary spacecraft, as well as the harsh conditions of
space, the camera weighs only 20.5 kilograms (45 pounds), stands less than
88 centimeters (35 inches) tall, and is 40 centimeters (16 inches) in diameter.
Cost of the camera for the Mars Global Surveyor mission is $3 million.
Mars Global Surveyor is the first of a decade-long program of robotic missions
to Mars managed for the NASA Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C.,
by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology,
Pasadena, CA.
--Diane Ainsworth
Glenn Cunningham, Mars Global Surveyor Project
Manager
