Mars Surveyor Mission Press Release, 7 February 1994

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From: sdd@larc.nasa.gov (Steve Derry)
Subject: HQ 94-20 / Mars Surveyor
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Organization: NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA  USA
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Date: Mon, 7 Feb 1994 20:29:59 GMT
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Donald L. Savage
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.              February 7, 1994
(Phone:  202/358-1547)

Diane Ainsworth
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
(Phone:  818/354-5011)


RELEASE:  94-20

NASA BEGINS DEVELOPMENT OF NEW MARS EXPLORATION PROGRAM


NASA will continue to explore Mars with a new exploration strategy in 
fiscal year 1995.  The Mars Surveyor program calls for start of 
development of a small orbiter that will be launched in November 1996 to 
study the surface of the red planet. 

The Mars Surveyor orbiter will lay the foundation for a series of 
missions to Mars in a decade-long program of Mars exploration.  The 
missions will take advantage of launch opportunities about every 2 years 
as Mars comes into alignment with Earth. 

NASA requested $77 million in development costs in FY 1995 for the new 
Mars orbiter.  The announcement was made during NASA's press briefing on 
the 1995 budget request.  The 1995 fiscal year runs from Oct. 1, 1994, to 
Sept. 30, 1995. 

The Mars Surveyor program will be conducted within the constraints of a 
cost ceiling of approximately $100 million per year.  The orbiter will be 
small enough to be launched on a Delta expendable launch vehicle and will 
carry roughly half of the science payload that flew on Mars Observer, 
which was lost on Aug. 21, 1993.  The specific instruments will be 
selected later. 

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, Calif., will issue a 
request for proposals to industry in mid-March to solicit potential 
spacecraft designs.  Selection of a contractor to build the spacecraft 
will be made by July 1. 

NASA envisions an orbiter/lander pair of spacecraft as the next in this 
series of robotic missions to Mars. 

The orbiter planned for launch in 1998 would be even smaller than the 
initial Mars Surveyor orbiter and carry the remainder of the Mars 
Observer science instruments.  It would act as a communications relay 
satellite for a companion lander, launched the same year, and other 
landers in the future, such as the Russian Mars '96 lander.  The U.S. 
Pathfinder lander, set to land on Mars in 1997, will operate 
independently of the Mars orbiter. 

The 1998 orbiter/lander spacecraft would be small enough to be launched 
on an expendable launch vehicle about half the size and cost of the Delta 
launch vehicle. 

JPL will manage mission design and spacecraft operations of the Mars 
Surveyor for NASA's Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C.