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Mars Climate Orbiter

Mars Climate Orbiter
Mars Climate Orbiter 2.jpg
Artist's conception of the Mars Climate Orbiter
Mission type Mars orbiter
Operator NASA / JPL
COSPAR ID 1998-073A
Website mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msp98/orbiter/
Mission duration 286 days
Mission failure
Spacecraft properties
Manufacturer Lockheed Martin
Launch mass 338 kilograms (745 lb)
Power 500 watts
Start of mission
Launch date 11 December 1998, 18:45:51 (1998-12-11UTC18:45:51Z) UTC
Rocket Delta II 7425
Launch site Cape Canaveral SLC-17A
End of mission
Last contact 23 September 1999 09:06:00 (1999-09-23UTC09:07Z) UTC
Decay date 23 September 1999
Unintentionally deorbited
Orbital parameters
Reference system Areocentric
Epoch Planned

The Mars Climate Orbiter (formerly the Mars Surveyor '98 Orbiter) was a 338-kilogram (745 lb) robotic space probe launched by NASA on December 11, 1998 to study the Martian climate, Martian atmosphere, and surface changes and to act as the communications relay in the Mars Surveyor '98 program for Mars Polar Lander. However, on September 23, 1999, communication with the spacecraft was lost as the spacecraft went into orbital insertion, due to ground-based computer software which produced output in non-SI units of pound (force)-seconds (lbf·s) instead of the SI units of newton-seconds (N·s) specified in the contract between NASA and Lockheed. The spacecraft encountered Mars on a trajectory that brought it too close to the planet, causing it to pass through the upper atmosphere and disintegrate.

After the loss of Mars Observer and the onset of the rising costs associated with the future International Space Station, NASA began seeking less expensive, smaller probes for scientific interplanetary missions. In 1994, the Panel on Small Spacecraft Technology was established to set guidelines for future miniature spacecraft. The panel determined that the new line of miniature spacecraft should be under 1000 kilograms with highly focused instrumentation. In 1995, a new Mars Surveyor program began as a set of missions designed with limited objectives, low costs, and frequent launches. The first mission in the new program was Mars Global Surveyor, launched in 1996 to map Mars and provide geologic data using instruments intended for Mars Observer. Following Mars Global Surveyor, Mars Climate Orbiter carried two instruments, one originally intended for Mars Observer, to study the climate and weather of Mars.


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