Mars Climate Orbiter
Artist's conception of the Mars Climate Orbiter
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| Mission type | Mars orbiter |
|---|---|
| Operator | NASA / JPL |
| COSPAR ID | 1998-073A |
| Website | mars |
| 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 UTC |
| Rocket | Delta II 7425 |
| Launch site | Cape Canaveral SLC-17A |
| End of mission | |
| Last contact | 23 September 1999 09:06:00 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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