Mars Polar Lander Found?

[MacSA]

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/050502_mpl_search.html

Word is that the MSSS team is hot on the trail of the missing Mars Polar Lander. Insiders suggest that MGS in cPROTO mode is to be trained on a suspected Mars spot next month.

[emw]

http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/050502_mpl_search.html

Word is that the MSSS team is hot on the trail of the missing Mars Polar Lander. Insiders suggest that MGS in cPROTO mode is to be trained on a suspected Mars spot next month.Interesting stuff - it would be nice if they could find it. But looking at the image of the Spirit rover, I don't think they'll be able to assess much. Now if they could send Spirit to repair the other craft, that would be cool...

Yes, I know it's not equipped to do it, but still.

[leekohler]

It would be really cool to know what happened to it. I remember when it disappeared there was not much info on the news.

[Lord Blackadder]

Interesting stuff - it would be nice if they could find it. But looking at the image of the Spirit rover, I don't think they'll be able to assess much. Now if they could send Spirit to repair the other craft, that would be cool...

Yes, I know it's not equipped to do it, but still.

LOL, the only thing that Spirit could do would be to drill into it and take microscopic pictures to see what it is made of, but we already know that. :D

Anyway, someday astronauts will probably go check it out in person - by the time I'm in a nursing home we'll have found out why it didn't land properly. ;) :p :rolleyes:

[dobbin]

But looking at the image of the Spirit rover, I don't think they'll be able to assess much.

I think they spent too long looking at the rover and missed something much more obvious.

Click on the thumbnail to see the larger version.

[emw]

Pretty amazing - I'm surprised you're the first one to see it, but maybe it's just because you pointed it out that it seems so obvious. Maybe we should forward this back to those know-it-alls at NASA. :D

[MacSA]

What's even more extraoridnary is that the rovers TRACKS are visble in the latest images.

Here we can see Spirit's tracks leading up to Bonneville Crater and then off to the Columbia Hills several km away:

http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/01/03/


And here we see Opportunity on it's way to Endurance Crater:

http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/01/24/

[MacSA]

the next Mars Oribter, Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is scheduled for launch on August 10th this year. It has a camera with the highest resolution ever flown to another planet. It will also keep a look out for the various landers that have reached mars over the years:

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/spotlight/20050412.html

http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mro/gallery/artwork/images/MRO_hirise.jpg

[pimentoLoaf]

We need a manned repair mission to the roving thing, and we could reconfigure it to drive to the polar thing and repair it automatically. :p

[Mr. Anderson]

We need a manned repair mission to the roving thing, and we could reconfigure it to drive to the polar thing and repair it automatically. :p

We could do a lot more than the Polar Lander if we had people there, so it wouldn't be worth it to fix the thing. Besides, if it cut out its landing engine, there might be a few pieces to put together, but most likely its a crater.... :p

D

[wdlove]

It would be great if NASA was able to find the Mars Polar Lander. Knowing its condition should be helpful to future missions.

[MacSA]

OK here are the pictures that might be MPL:

http://www.msss.com/mars_images/moc/2005/05/05/index.html

Also..after 30 years, they have found Viking Lander 2 :) Until now, no one was sure exactly where it landed.