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Lockheed Martin Announces Mars Polar Lander Loss Remains a Mystery
By Greg Clark
Staff Writer
posted: 10:23 am ET
06 January 2000
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mpl_lockheed_000106 After comments from engineers inside Lockheed Martin Astronautics lighted an explosion of controversy about the loss of the Mars Polar Lander, the company publicly denied that there is any way to say what happened to the craft. "There's no reason to believe, or even think that it's likely that the spacecraft came down in a crevasse or any type of a canyon. In fact, there's so little data about what did go wrong that we wish it were that easy," said Joan Underwood, a spokeswoman for the company. Underwood and Noel Hinners, Lockheed's vice president of flight systems, responded Thursday to questions about a newspaper report in which a high-ranking member of the mission team at Lockheed was quoted as saying the lander probably came down in a steep-sloped canyon. Hinners called the statement that the terrain was at fault "crazy" speculation. The lander went through several critical stages as it approached Mars, any of which could have suffered a debilitating failure. Trouble could have struck during the lander's separation from its cruise stage, as it entered the atmosphere, when its parachutes were to deploy, or as the heat shield was separating. Problems with leg deployment, radar turn-on, thruster ignition or shutdown are all possible, Hinners said. There is a large crater in the ellipse that outlines the possible landing area, Hinners said, adding that there are dangerous slopes that cover between 5 and 10 percent of that ellipse. "But we just can't finger that as the cause," he said. "We have no data." Hinners emphasized that Lockheed and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) still enjoy close cooperation as they search for clues about what happened to the lander. "We are working as a team with JPL, we're all trying to understand what happened here. It's very important as we go on to the subsequent missions. You've got to understand and know something about what happened before you take that next step," Hinners said. Lockheed is building spacecraft for the Mars missions that are to be launched in 2001. The 2001 lander is basically a copy of the Mars Polar Lander, but it will carry different scientific instruments and a miniature rover. Parts of the spacecraft are being assembled right now, Hinners said."So we've got to understand very soon what, if anything, do we need to change or beef up. NASA and JPL will have to make the decision not too far downstream, do we continue on with an ' 01 lander or not." Click here to read space.com's earlier coverage of the controversy.
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