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On the evening on Thursday, September 11, NASA's Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft will go into orbit around Mars. After spending several months circularizing its orbit, it will begin returning images and other data about the Red Planet in early 1998. Update: Sept. 11 11:00pm EDT: At a press briefing at JPL about an hour after the orbital insertion maneuver, officials confirmed everything was working well with the mission. "We couldn't be more pleased," said mission manager Glenn Cunningham. "Everything looks great." Update: Sept. 11 9:58pm EDT: Success! The signal has been reacquired from Mars Global Surveyor and all systems are working well. The spacecraft appears to be safely in orbit around the planet, as planned. Update: Sept. 11 9:53pm EDT: The engine on Mars Global Surveyor was scheduled to shut down at approzimately this time. Since the spacecraft is out of contact with Earth presently, there is no way to verify this until it reppears from behind Mars in a few minutes. Update: Sept. 11 9:43pm EDT: Mars Global Surveyor has passed behind Mars as seen from Earth, temporarily cutting off radio communications, as planned. The cultation will end in about 13 minutes. Update: Sept. 11 9:31pm EDT: The orbital insertion burn has begun, JPL reports. The spacecraft's engine started on schedule and the burn appears to be going well. Update: Sept. 11 7:30pm EDT: Mars Global surveyor is on course for arrival at Mars in just a couple hours. At a press conference earlier today mission managers said everything was going well and the spacecraft was on a perfect trajectory for arrival. Stay tuned for additional updates throughout the next few hours. Schedule of Spacecraft Events for Arrival Day:All times EDT (Eastern Daylight Time: add four hours for Universal (Greenwich Mean) Time; subtract three hours for Pacific Daylight Time) 9:31pm: The main engine on Mars Global Surveyor fires to start slowing the craft down. At the time the spacecraft is about 1,200 km (750 mi.) above the Martian north pole, moving south. 9:43pm: Mars Global Surveyor passes behind Mars as seen from Earth. Radio contact is cut off at this time. 9:53pm: The main engine should cut off at around this time. The time is approximate since the computer on the spacecraft makes the decision to cut off the engine once the spacecraft has slowed down enough. 9:57pm: The spacecraft reemerges from behind Mars as seen from Earth. Receivers on Earth should start detecting a radio signal from the spacecratf at around this time. 10:40pm: A press briefing is scheduled to announce the results of the orbital insertion maneuver. More information about the arrival schedule is available from the official Mars Global Surveyor Web site at http://mpfwww.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs/overvu/mplan/moi/moi.html. Check out the Mars Global
Surveyor official Web Site for more
information about the mission. SpaceViews will provide also updates and
additional information on the mission.
Last Update: 1997 September 11 |
