MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA 91109. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
Radio telescopes in The Netherlands, England and at Stanford
University in California have begun listening for a possible
signal from Mars Polar Lander today.
The array of fourteen 25-meter (82-foot) antennas at
Westerbork in The Netherlands as well as the 76-meter (about 250-
foot) antenna at Jodrell Bank, near Manchester, England have
three 30-minute listening opportunities today. The 45-meter (150-
foot) antenna at Stanford University is also able to listen
during these windows. An array located near Bologna, Italy is not
being used today.
Mission managers for Polar Lander say it will take each of
the stations some time to review their data. “We want to make
sure we have checked and double-checked these data before we can
confirm whether or not there is a signal,” said Richard Cook,
project manager for Mars Polar Lander at NASA’s Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. “I don’t think we’ll know anything
either way until sometime next week.”
Mars Polar Lander is managed by the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory for NASA’s Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C.
Lockheed Martin Astronautics Inc., Denver, Colo., is the agency’s
industrial partner for development and operation of the
spacecraft. JPL is a division of the California Institute of
Technology in Pasadena.
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