PUBLIC INFORMATION 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
Contact: Diane Ainsworth
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 24, 1997
PUBLIC WILL HAVE INTERNET VIEW OF PATHFINDER ACTIVITIES
Internet users around the world may begin following the Mars
Pathfinder spacecraft as it approaches Mars and prepares for a
July 4 landing by way of a variety local mirror sites that are
now online.
The Internet sites feature updates on mission activities,
and will provide Pathfinder photographs of the Martian surface
once they become available. The sites also feature a bird's eye
view of the Mars Pathfinder mission operations area at NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, via a live video camera feed
that is updated every 15 minutes.
"We're expecting a siege of hits on July 4," said David
Dubov, Mars Pathfinder webmaster at JPL. "Our best estimate,
based on past events such as Galileo, the Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9
collision in 1994, Comet Hale-Bopp's return and other celestial
events has led us to plan for at least 25 million hits on July 4,
and a similar level of hits per day during the week following
landing."
To accommodate the overwhelming interest among the public,
JPL will have about 20 mirror sites around the world by the end
of June so that people can use the sites closest to their homes
rather than trying to access the JPL site. "Most of the domestic
sites were picked because of their connection to the National
Science Foundation backbone, a very robust network that can
handle high traffic," said Kirk Goodall, Mars Pathfinder web
engineer. "Combined, these mirror sites will be able to service
up to 30 million hits per day."
During landing day activities and the Pathfinder rover's
primary, seven-day mission, members of the public should access
the following Pathfinder mirror sites closest to their homes:
CORPORATE MIRROR SITES
Silicon Graphics Computer Systems, Inc.
http://mars.sgi.com
Load capacity per day: 15 million hits/day
CompuServe, Inc.
http://mars.compuserve.com
Load capacity per day: 10 million hits/day
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
http://www.sun.com/mars
Load capacity per day: 6 million hits/day
PUBLIC SECTOR MIRROR SITES
NASA Ames Research Center
Moffet Field, CA
http://mpfwww.arc.nasa.gov
Load capacity per day: 5 million hits/day
National Center for Supercomputer Applications (NCSA)
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne, IL
http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/mars
Load capacity per day: 4 million hits/day
Cornell Theory Center
Cornell University, NY
http://mars.tc.cornell.edu
Load capacity per day: 4 million hits/day
National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR #1)
Boulder, CO
http://www.mars.ucar.edu
Load capacity per day: 4 million hits/day
San Diego Supercomputer Center
San Diego State University, CA
http://mars.sdsc.edu
Load capacity per day: 4 million hits/day
NASA Kennedy Space Center
Cape Canaveral, FL
http://www.ksc.nasa.gov/mars
Load capacity per day: 2 million hits/day
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Pasadena, CA
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/mpfmir
Load capacity per day: 1 million hits/day
National Center for Atmospheric Research
(NCAR #2) Boulder, CO
http://mars.nlanr.net
Load capacity per day: 1 million hits/day
Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center
University of Pittsburgh, PA
http://www.psc.edu/Mars
Load capacity per day: 750,000 hits/day
NASA Lewis Research Center
Dayton, OH
http://pathfinder.lerc.nasa.gov
Load capacity per day: 500,000 hits/day
The Catlin Gabel School
Portland, OR
http://mars.catlin.edu
Load capacity per day: 500,000 hits/day
INTERNATIONAL MIRROR SITES
National Space Development Agency of Japan (NASDA)
Tokyo, Japan
http://mars.tksc.nasda.go.jp/JPL
Load capacity per day: 2 million hits/day
Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES)
France http://www-mars.cnes.fr
Load capacity per day: 1 million hits/day
The Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research
Organization (CSIRO)
Sydney, Australia
http://sparkli.tip.csiro.au/mars/default.html
Load capacity per day: 1 million hits/day
Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex CDSCC - NASA/JPL)
Canberra, Australia
http://tid.cdscc.nasa.gov/mars
Load capacity per day: 500,000 hits/day
IKI (Institute for Space Science)
Moscow, Russia
http://www.iki.rssi.ru/jplmirror/mars
Load capacity per day: 250,000 hits/day
Mars Pathfinder is the second in NASA's Discovery program of
low-cost spacecraft with highly focused science goals. The Jet
Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, manages the Mars Pathfinder
mission for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C.
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6/9/97 DEA
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