[X] My Assistant

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

http://skyandtelescope.com/news/article_1509_1.asp

In December 1999 NASA's Mars Polar Lander (MPL) was supposed to touch down near the red planet's south pole. But shortly after it entered the Martian atmosphere, the spacecraft disappeared without a trace. Only now, 5½ years later, do scientists think they may have finally located the lander's wreckage and confirmed what went wrong with the mission. The full report, by planetary scientist Michael C. Malin (Malin Space Science Systems), appears in the July 2005 issue of Sky & Telescope, now in press.

More from MSSS:

http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/05/05/index.html

[Phil Stooke]

True... but if it's so small the pixel may not sample it cleanly. Of course you said it would have to fall cleanly in a pixel. But on the other hand, if it's as dusty as Spirit was before the "cleaning event", it's that much harder again. Nobody would be happier than me if it could be seen.

I just looked at the PROTO image of the MPF site - it doesn't extend far enough south to cover the backshell. And so far we don't have cPROTO, at least not released. Even Pathfinder itself is unremarkable - as the MSSS release showed just the other day. If you didn't know it WAS the lander the photo certainly wouldn't confirm it.

Interested folks might like to look at Journal of Geophysical Research - Planets - Vol. 104, No. E4, April 25 1999, the MPF special issue.

[djellison]

Interested folks might like to look at Journal of Geophysical Research - Planets - Vol. 104, No. E4, April 25 1999, the MPF special issue.

http://www.agu.org/journals/je/je9904/je104_4.html

Doug