TES News






February 1994, Volume 3, No. 1









Thermal Emission Spectrometer Project
Mars Observer Space Flight Facility                             
Department of Geology, Arizona State University
Box 871404, Tempe, Arizona 85287-1404, U.S.A.
















Mars and Arizona 1894 - 1994



Arizona a Draw for Mars Science


Like Arizona, Mars has vast deserts with red rocks, drifting dunes, 
giant canyons, dry river beds, mountains and valleys formed by geologic 
faults, 


volcanoes, 

lava flows, and summertime dust storms.  The scientific 
connection from Arizona to Mars began with Percival Lowell, who came from 
Boston in 1894 to build an observatory in Flagstaff.  Fascinated by reports 
dating back to 1877 of dark, thin, straight lines criss-crossing the planet, 
Lowell moved to Arizona so that he could have a clear view of Mars.  He 
interpreted the dark lines to be canals built by an intelligent Martian 
civilization attempting to irrigate a dry and dying planet.  Lowell's theories 
were published in three popular books, Mars (1895), Mars and its 
Canals (1906), and Mars as the Abode of Life (1909).  This year, Lowell Observatory
will celebrate its centennial. 


Arizona continues to draw Mars scientists.  Today, there are research teams 
at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona State University in Tempe, 
and the U.S. Geological Survey and Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff.  
Arizona figured prominently in the telescope exploration of Mars throughout 
the past century.  

Mariner 4

was the first spacecraft to fly past 
Mars in 1965.  It did not find Lowell's canals, but instead a cold, dry, 
cratered landscape.  Later missions found volcanoes, canyons, and dry 
riverbeds.   Two landers, Viking 1 and 2, arrived in 1976 
and gave us a view of Mars from the ground.  Some say it looked like an 
Arizona desert-- but without the saguaros. 


The most recent attempt to explore Mars was NASA's Mars Observer,


launched

 in September 1992.  Two of the Mars Observer science 
instruments, the Gamma Ray Spectrometer (GRS) and Thermal Emission 
Spectrometer (TES) were controlled from facilities in Tucson and 
Tempe, respectively.  But Mars Observer was lost in August 1993. 









Mars 1993.
 
 


This picture was taken by the Mars Observer Camera 
              at the end of July 1993.  The large dark feature is the region 
              Syrtis Major.  Syrtis Major is a low, broad shield 
              volcano probably covered by dark windblown sand. 


Several 
images were taken 
by the Mars Observer Camera enroute to Mars.  These are
available from 
 Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS)
of San Diego, California.  Michael Malin of MSSS is also a member of the 
TES science team.

   















What Happened to Mars Observer?


What ultimately caused the loss of Mars Observer on August 21, 1993, 
may remain a mystery forever.  Mars Observer is probably following 
an elliptical orbit around the Sun and will continue to do so indefinitely.  
When it was lost, there were no communications from the spacecraft that 
indicated a problem.  Thus, the people who were asked by NASA to figure out 
what went wrong had no spacecraft data to help them.  An independent review 
panel headed by Dr. Timothy Coffey of the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory 
reported to 
NASA
on January 5, 1994.  The Coffey report concluded that no 
single cause for the failure could be determined.  Instead, they reviewed 
a variety of possible explanations and found that it was most likely the 
result of a rupture in a fuel line which would have caused the spacecraft 
to spin out of control.  The review identified several other problems which 
could have caused a failure, including an electrical short circuit which 
would affect the onboard computers, an accidental rupture of the fuel 
lines when valves were opened using tiny explosive devices, or a malfunction 
in the system that regulates fuel pressure.  The report was also critical of 
NASA's management of the Mars Observer assembly and design, but the 
Coffey commission was set up to look mainly at the technical causes of failure.  
NASA said it would review the lessons learned from the report and incorporate 
relevant changes in future Mars missions.  Similar reports and conclusions 
were issued by the 
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
of Pasadena, California, which 
controlled the spacecraft after launch, and by Martin Marietta, the company 
which was ultimately responsible for the assembly of Mars Observer. 




What's Next for Mars and TES?


Today, Mars researchers in Arizona and elsewhere are looking toward the future 
of Mars exploration.  To recover the Mars Observer mission objectives 
(see box), scientists are proposing that two spacecraft should be sent to 
orbit Mars, one in 1996 and one in 1998.  These would carry duplicates of the 
instruments originally flown on Mars Observer.  The next big hurdle 
will come in early February 1994, when President Clinton submits the Fiscal 
Year 1995 budget request to Congress.  Mars scientists are hoping for $100 
million to start building the proposed 1996 spacecraft called Mars 
Geoscience Orbiter.  If the new mission appears in the President's budget, 
it will then have to pass Congressional approval, a process which may take 
most of this year.  Readers of 
TES News
might consider writing to 
their representatives 

if they have an opinion on whether NASA should try 
to recover Mars Observer science. 










Mars Science Objectives for the 90's:


















Meanwhile, two other Mars spacecraft are being built.  Both of these missions 
were planned long before Mars Observer was lost, thus neither is 
intended to replace or recover the mission objectives of Mars Observer.  
The first is is a small lander, Pathfinder.  This lander includes a 
roving vehicle, and it will be launched by the U.S. in 1996.  Pathfinder 
is designed to test a variety of concepts for landing payloads on Mars and 
has only a few science instruments.  It will land (location to be determined) 
and provide pictures and soil analyses.  The other spacecraft is Mars 94, 
being prepared in Russia for an October-November 1994 launch from Kazakhstan.  
Mars 94 includes an orbiter and several small landers which would, if 
launched on time, reach Mars in September 1995.  This mission has been planned 
for more than 5 years and is based upon the design heritage of the Phobos 
spacecraft which the Soviet Union launched in 1988. 



Mars and Arizona 1994 - 2094

	
What will the next century of Mars exploration be like?  And what role will 
Arizonans play in that exploration?  
Apollo
astronauts who visited the Moon 
between 1969 and 1972 trained at Arizona's Grand Canyon, Meteor Crater, and 
amidst the volcanic cones surrounding Flagstaff.  Will people again come to 
Arizona to train for a human flight to Mars?  One hundred years ago, 
Percival Lowell had a vision of an inhabited Mars.  Perhaps before another 
hundred years pass, Mars will indeed become an inhabited world. 
 




Mars K-12 Education Program


The TES research group at ASU continues its education program with a 
Teacher Workshop on February 5, 1994.  Another
workshop is being planned for late August 1994.  

"
The Story of TES," slide set will 
be available for educators to borrow and/or copy beginning in 
February 1994.  Work is progressing on a second slide set, 
"Mars and Arizona."  Also, the TES group is soon to come
"on line" with a variety of  educational materials

and infrared data from the Mariner 9 and Viking Mars missions 
available by computer through the Internet system.  K-12 student groups can 
visit the TES facility on the ASU campus to learn more about Mars and the 
prospects for new missions to the Red Planet.  For more information about 
educational opportunities, call the ASU TES Project Office, (602) 965-1790, 
or write to the address at the top of this newsletter.  





Read All About It!


	

Check your local library or bookstore for the following:



(1) The Coffey Report 

	
The press conference held by NASA on January 5, 1994, was reviewed in 
most major newspapers across the U.S. the next morning.  Check your local 
newspaper or see the article by J. N. Wilford, "Costly failure of 
mission to Mars is tied to rupture of fuel system," The New York 
Times, p. 1, January 6, 1994. 



 
(Information about the loss of 
Mars Observer is also available from Malin Space Science Systems.)



(2) Tarzan Man Writes on Mars and Arizona 


Edgar Rice Burroughs, the famous author who created Tarzan, also wrote a 
12-part series about Captain John Carter, a Civil War veteran who had all 
kinds of adventures on Mars.  The first novel, A Princess of Mars 
(1912), opens in the desert of Arizona Territory in 1866.  These books 
are still in print.  Discover how John Carter gets from Arizona to the 
Red Planet. 


(3) Face the Face 


You've seen it in the tabloids at the grocery store check-out stand.  
The "Face on Mars" is one among thousands of mountains, knobs, and buttes 
in the Cydonia region of Mars (something like Monument Valley on a grand 
scale).  The "face" has been examined in two articles written for teachers 
and K-12 students:  



Stephens, S., "The Face on Mars," The Universe in the Classroom, 
no. 25, Fall 1993.  (From Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 390 Ashton 
Ave., San Francisco, CA 94112). 


Sprungman, B., "What's that on Mars?  Let's Face it!" Odyssey, 
p. 34-36, December 1993. 



(4) Moon Astronauts Trained in Arizona 


How will people prepare for a human mission to Mars?  The past is the 
key to the future.  See what it was like to train astronauts who went 
to the Moon by reading:  To a Rocky Moon: A Geologists History of 
Lunar Exploration, by Dr. Don E. Wilhems, University of Arizona 
Press, Tucson, 1993. 


(5) Mars in the Years 2171 to 2184

A new fiction novel explores Mars almost two hundred years hence.  
Moving Mars, by Greg Bear, Tor Books, New York, 1993. 


(6) Special Mars Issues 


The National Space Society (NSS) recently featured Mars with seven 
articles in their November-December 1993 issue of Ad Astra.  
Mars was also covered in the September-October 1992 Ad Astra.  
For more information write to the NSS at 922 Pennsylvania Ave., SE, 
Washington, DC 20003.











A new TES News is available approximately 
every 3 to 6 months.  This newsletter may 
be copied for educational purposes.  Please 
share or recycle harcopies of this document.  
K. Patoni and M.A. Presley helped edit this 
edition.  

Text by:  

K. S. Edgett



Original Text:  January 21, 1994
This On-line version:  January 27, 1994