Douglas Isbell

Headquarters, Washington, DC November 6, 1997

(Phone: 202/358-1753)

RELEASE: 97-260

SCIENCE TEAM AND INSTRUMENTS SELECTED

FOR MARS SURVEYOR 2001 MISSIONS

Two robotic spacecraft scheduled for launch in mid-2001 to

orbit and land on Mars will carry a descent camera, a
multispectral imager, and a robotic rover capable of traversing
tens of miles across the red planet's rocky highlands.

The Mars Surveyor 2001 missions will follow two other robotic
Mars missions to be launched in late 1998 and early 1999. All are
part of NASA's long-term, systematic exploration of Mars in which
two missions are launched to the planet approximately every 26
months.

"The Mars 2001 missions will be a major step forward in

advancing our understanding of Mars and preparing to return
samples," said Dr. Carl Pilcher, acting director for NASA's Solar
System Exploration program. "When we combine the information from
the 2001 missions with information from Mars Pathfinder, Mars
Global Surveyor, and the missions we will launch to Mars in 1998
and 1999, we will have an excellent understanding of the planet as
a whole, and we'll be well on the way toward investigating the
most fascinating and scientifically intriguing surface sites in
detail."

NASA's Office of Space Science has selected the following

investigations for the Mars 2001 Orbiter, due for launch in March
of that year, and the Mars 2001 Lander/Rover, due for launch in
April:

* The Mars 2001 Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) will map
the mineralogy and morphology of the Martian surface using a high
resolution camera and a thermal infrared imaging spectrometer.
Dr. Phil Christensen from Arizona State University in Tempe is the
principal investigator for THEMIS.

* The Mars 2001 Lander will carry a small, advanced technology

rover capable of traveling several tens of miles across the
Martian highlands. The rover will be slightly larger than the
Pathfinder Sojourner rover and will be designed to go farther (100
km vs. 100 m for Sojourner) and to last longer (1 year vs. 7 days
for Sojourner). The rover will carry a payload called Athena,
which is an integrated suite of instruments which will conduct
in-situ scientific analyses of surface materials. It also will be
able to collect and analyze core samples for later return to Earth
by a future robotic mission. Dr. Steven Squyres from Cornell
University, Ithaca, NY, is the principal investigator for Athena.

* The 2001 Lander also will carry an imager to take pictures of

the surrounding terrain during the lander's rocket-assisted
descent to the surface. The descent imaging camera will provide
images of the landing site for geologic analyses, and will aid
planning for initial operations and traverses by the Athena rover.
Dr. Michael Malin of Malin Space Science Systems Inc. in San
Diego, CA, is the team leader for the Descent Imager science team
and Dr. Ken Herkenhoff of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL),
Pasadena, CA is a team member.

These investigations were selected from of a total of 39

proposals submitted to NASA in August 1997 in response to
Anouncement of Opportunity (AO) -97-OSS-04, "Mars Surveyor Program
2001 Orbiter, Lander, Rover Missions: Science Investigations and
Characterization of Environments," issued in June 1997.

The 2001 Orbiter will be the first to use the atmosphere of

Mars to slow down and directly capture a spacecraft into orbit in
one step, using a technique called aerocapture.

The Orbiter also will carry the Gamma Ray Spectrometer (GRS),
the last of the remaining Mars Observer science investigations.
The GRS will achieve global mapping of the elemental composition
of the surface and the abundance of hydrogen in the shallow
subsurface.

The AO also solicited soil, dust, and radiation

investigations for the Mars 2001 mission. NASA's Office of Life
and Microgravity Sciences and Applications will announce its
decisions for these investigations at a later date.

An integrated team consisting of the Jet Propulsion

Laboratory and Lockheed Martin Astronautics, Denver, CO, will
develop the missions, led by JPL.
 Both of the 2001 missions are part of an ongoing NASA series
of robotic Mars exploration spacecraft that began with the
launches of the Mars Global Surveyor orbiter and the Mars
Pathfinder lander in November and December 1996, respectively.

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