NASA Concludes All Attempts to Communicate with Lander

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE

JET PROPULSION LABORATORY

CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

PASADENA, CALIFORNIA 91109. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Contact: Mary Hardin

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NASA CONCLUDES ALL ATTEMPTS TO COMMUNICATE WITH LANDER

The Mars Polar Lander flight team has ended all attempts to
regain communications with the spacecraft.

“The final set of planned commands were sent on Jan. 6 to
place the spacecraft in UHF safe mode. Since then, we’ve had a
series of relay communications sessions using Mars Global
Surveyor to listen for the lander around the clock,” said Richard
Cook, the project manager for Mars Polar Lander at NASA’s Jet
Propulsion Laboratory. “These attempts have ended today
concluding our attempts to recover the spacecraft.”

Mars Global Surveyor continues to perform special targeted
observations of the Mars Polar Lander landing site in hopes of
imaging the lander or its parachute. No evidence of the
spacecraft has been sighted so far and these attempts will
continue through early February. The team has started in depth
analysis of terrain hazards within the landing footprint in
support of the JPL Mars Polar Lander/Deep Space 2 Failure Review
Board.

Mars Polar Lander and Deep Space 2 are managed by the Jet
Propulsion Laboratory for NASA’s Office of Space Science,
Washington, DC. Lockheed Martin Astronautics Inc., Denver, CO, is
the agency’s industrial partner for development and operation of
the spacecraft. JPL designed and built the Deep Space 2
microprobes. JPL is a division of the California Institute of
Technology, Pasadena, CA.

#####