Arizonans: scientists right here in your own state are communicating with a spacecraft orbiting Mars! (Well, it will be orbiting after August 23, 1993). For the first time in NASA history, the individual instruments on an interplanetary spacecraft can be controlled at the home institution of the principal science investigators.
Instruments on a spacecraft are like your senses. In order to know what is going on around you, you take advantage of senses that allow you to hear, see, taste, smell, and/or touch things in your environment. A spacecraft is a robot. The robot, too, needs to be able to determine some facts about its environment. These instruments typically "see" different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum.
In 1985, Dr. Philip Christensen of Arizona State University assembled a team of engineers and scientists to propose an instrument that later NASA decided to include on its Mars Observer mission. This instrument, affectionately known as TES, is the Thermal Emission Spectrometer. The TES can "see" infrared "light" that has wavelengths between 6 and 50 microns (1 micron = 0.001 milimeters). The infrared wavelengths detected by TES are ideal for determining the mineral composition of the surface (upper 500 microns) of Mars. These wavelengths also have information about the temperature of the surface and about clouds in the atmosphere.
The TES was built under a NASA contract by the Hughes Santa Barbara Research Center (SBRC) in Goleta, California. The project involved more than 100 staff and engineers over a period of about 6 years. The effort that went into building and calibrating the TES amounted to about 170 person-years of effort. The TES was calibrated in a vacuum chamber during late Summer 1991, and then it was flown (in a first class passenger seat, no less!) by airplane to the General Electric Astro Space Division near Princeton, New Jersey. This is where the spacecraft bus (its body) was being built. All of Mars Observer's science instruments were constructed by different companies, then delivered to New Jersey in this way. After the instruments were integrated with the spacecraft, the whole thing was placed in a giant vacuum chamber for further testing. Finally, in June 1992, Mars Observer was loaded into a big truck and driven (slowly, carefully) down to Florida. The spacecraft was then launched from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on 25 September 1992.
The Mars Observer Space Flight Facility, located in the Moeur Building on the Arizona State University (ASU) campus, is designed to serve as the command center for the Mars Observer TES instrument. Dr. Philip R. Christensen, the TES Principal Investigator, is a professor of geology at ASU. Raw TES data are received and processed at the ASU TES facility, and commands for the TES are generated at ASU to be radioed out to the spacecraft while it orbits the Red Planet. During the course of the Mars Observer mission, intended to run through at least November 1995, scientists from other parts of the U.S. and Russia will visit ASU to plan TES observations and analyze the new data from our fourth planet.
Because TES is being controlled from a facility on the ASU campus instead of a NASA space center or the Jet Propulstion Laboratory (in Pasadena, California), the TES project offers a unique opportunity for the residents of Arizona to see a real space mission being conducted by expert scientists and engineers right in their own "backyard." The ASU Mars Observer Space Flight Facility was designed with public visitation in mind. Visitors to the facility can examine displays containing pictures and descriptions of Mars Observer and TES, the history of Mars exploration, and the geology of Mars. NASA Television is also available in the facility, and soon there will be a monitor to display pictures and maps generated from the Mars Observer mission itself. The facility has numerous windows, allowing the visitor to look in and see the full-scale TES prototype ("engineering model") and a flight spare of the Viking Infrared Thermal Mapper. Also, the visitor can observe the progress of the TES mission and analysis of the data.
School groups frequently visit the Mars Observer Space Flight Facility. A typical group visit is about a half an hour long, but you can visit longer by making special arrangements in advance. Visiting children are encouraged to ask questions and share their knowledge of the Red Planet. The typical 1/2-hour visit is usually one stop on a campus-wide tour of scientific facilities, including the ASU Geology Museum, Meteorite Collection, and Planetarium. Such campus tours can be arranged throuh the ASU Visitor Center (602) 965-0100. Longer visits and tours of the interior of the Mars Observer Facility can be arranged directly with the TES staff by calling (602) 965-1790.
The Mars Observer TES project is in the process of conduction a broad educational outreach program, designed to give teachers and their students the opportunity to get involved and follow the Mars Observer mission as it unfolds in real time. A K-12 Educators' Workshop was held on 20 February 1993, to expose the project to about 115 interested teachers from across Arizona. This book was produced to coincide with the Second K-12 Educators' Workshop on 21 August 1993. Educators interested in learning more should contact the ASU Mars Observer Space Flight Facility at (602) 965-1790.