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Destination-Mars, ETA-Thursday
By Greg Clark
Staff Writer
posted: 08:48 pm ET
15 September 1999
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After performing "as good or better than expected," during its last course-correction maneuver en route to the red planet, the Mars Climate Orbiter is right on target to glance through Mars' atmosphere when it arrives Mars SeptThe Mars Climate Orbiter is right on target to glance through Mars' atmosphere when it arrives next Thursday, after a final course-correction that NASA says went "as good or better than expected." Controllers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's mission control in Pasadena, California completed the last of four adjustments to the spacecraft's trajectory since the satellite began its cruise to Mars nine months ago. The maneuvers have been routine fine-tunings required to place the orbiter within 10 to 20 miles of its target destination after a voyage of some 416 million miles. Each of the four adjustments has worked better than the last, said Sam Thurman, flight operations manager for the Mars Climate Orbiter and the Mars Polar Lander, which are both headed toward Mars. Controllers have used the adjustment maneuvers to gauge how the spacecraft reacts to firings of its eight small positioning thrusters. Understanding just how the craft reacts becomes important as engineers prepare for the firing of the orbiter's main engine to brake the spacecraft's speed and allow it to enter Martian orbit. That main-engine burn is scheduled for September 23, when the craft reaches Mars. The positioning thrusters will be used to stabilize the craft during the deceleration burn. The orbiter's first assignment will begin a few months after it arrives, when the Mars Polar Lander touches down near the Martian south pole on December 3. It will relay data and communications to and from Earth during the several weeks the lander is active. Then the orbiter will start its own two-year mapping and climate-observation mission.
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