Mars Global Surveyor Information

Jet Propulsion Laboratory Release, 8 July 1994

PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011

Contact: Diane Ainsworth


  MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR INNOVATIONS


     Mars Global Surveyor demonstrates NASA's new approach
to streamlining the development, deployment and on-orbit
costs of new spaceflight missions. Features of the Mars
Global Surveyor project include:

     * Fast-track in development; costs constrained to $100
million or less per year.

     * Uniform mapping capability, obtained with low-
altitude, sun-synchronous orbit.

     * Moderate, five-year mission lifetime.

     * International collaboration with French-supplied data
relay system that will relay information from Russian as
well as future U.S. spacecraft on Mars' surface.

     * Utilizes existing infrastructure and hardware to
achieve rapid launch readiness.

     * Initiates NASA's decade-long exploration of Mars by
both orbiters and landers.


PROJECT MANAGEMENT

     * Capped, cost-driven management approach; project
management staff significantly reduced.

     * Fast-track schedule with built-in performance
measurement to assure on-time readiness for launch in just
28 months. (On average, planetary spacecraft development in
the recent past has taken about 66 months or five-and-a-half
years.)

     * Shared launch vehicle engineering and launch site
support personnel with Mars Pathfinder mission to minimize
personnel and costs.

     * Colocation of JPL project personnel at spacecraft
contractor's facility.


INDUSTRY PARTICIPATION/PROCUREMENT INNOVATIONS

     * Full industry participation.  Twelve Phase A
contracts awarded, four to small businesses, in less than
one week using streamlined approach.

     * Rapid request-for-proposal preparation.  Request-for-
proposal prepared, distributed and reviewed by integrated
project team using electronic network.

     * Draft request-for-proposal provided to industry 10
days following NASA go-ahead.

     * All industry comments addressed at industry briefing.

     * Evaluation approach design to maximize mission return
within capped budget.

     * Simple, innovative fee approach that warrants on-
orbit performance and rewards cost control.

     * Contractor selection and contract award completed in
eight weeks, compared with an average five to six months on
similar procurements in the past.


SPACECRAFT IMPLEMENTATION

     * JPL maintains Mars Observer-pioneered on-orbit
performance award for spacecraft contractor.

     * JPL and spacecraft contractor personnel will team to
share in development activities.

     * Spacecraft contractor will use inherited elements and
new technology to minimize schedule risk and provide
adequate margins for completion of sublevel system tasks.

     * Contractually required documentation of task
completion and developmental progress will be reduced
significantly.


SCIENCE IMPLEMENTATION

     * Internationally accepted science objectives.

     * Principal science investigators will manage their
hardware and science investigations to assigned cost caps.

     * Preserve existing operations infrastructure by
maintaining remote science operations sites.  Remote science
instrument command, analysis and data processing reduces
travel costs.

     * Merge science hardware and science investigation
management.

     * Immediate availability of science data to science
teams through use of the Mars Observer-pioneered project
database.


FLIGHT OPERATIONS

     * Use existing ground data system.

     * Combine ground data system testing and flight
       operations training.

     * Flight operations system redesigned to:

        -- Eliminate a layer of management;

        -- Provide a centralized command tracking database;

        -- Ensure electronic document distribution;

        -- Establish a seamless uplink process whereby
           commands are generated by a single team;

        --Establish a single downlink team for performance
          assessment.


SMALL AND MINORITY-OWNED BUSINESS PARTICIPATION

     Small and minority-owned businesses participating in
the Mars Global Surveyor mission will represent 33.3 percent
of the prime contractor's hardware and software procurement.

     Technologies that will be provided by small and
minority-owned businesses include:

     * Solid state recorders

     * Propulsion valves

     * Solar panels

     * Gimbal actuators

     * Central clock

     * Testing

     * High technology material


EDUCATIONAL OUTREACH

     Mars Global Surveyor will participate in a vigorous
educational outreach program to promote excellence in
America's educational system and help expand U.S. scientific
and technological competence.

     The focus of these educational outreach efforts will
support science, mathematics and space mission development
curricula at the kindergarten through 12th grade levels,
provide educational enrichment for teachers and a better
public understanding of science.


     Core Thrusts

     * To establish national partnerships for the
dissemination of educational resources to national teacher
associations, educational advocacy groups and aerospace
industry educational associations.

     * To establish a science education model that will link
students to the Mars Surveyor program through parallel
projects that will allow them to interact with program
managers, engineers and scientists.

     * To establish partnerships with faculty at centers of
higher education, using a science education model project
for teacher enhancement.

     * To establish regional science centers for teacher
enhancement, student instruction and dissemination of
resource materials at the home institutions of the Mars
Surveyor program's principal investigators.


     Educational Products

     * New science lesson plans on Mars exploration, to be
incorporated into standard science course curricula.

     * An online database on Mars exploration for schools,
libraries, museums and planetariums.

     * Educational television programs for national
broadcast.

     *  Speakers, facility tours and mission reference
materials.


     Support for Educational Technology Utilization

     * Near real-time distribution of images and other
science data from Mars may be used as source material for
the classroom.

     * Use of television, video tape, online public access
computer sites such as Spacelink and JPL's image library,
CD-ROMs and Internet as primary means of distributing
information.