Wreckage of NASA Mars Polar Lander possibly discovered

Wreckage of NASA Mars Polar Lander possibly discovered

NASA’s Mars Polar Lander disappeared from the horizon and the radar screens around 6 years back. Now, a team of scientists is claiming that they have noticed what appears to be wreckage of the same spacecraft on the red planet. They were re-observing the old coarse, black-and-white images taken by the orbiting Mars Global Surveyor.

Mars Global Surveyor was on a mission to track down the probe but had no success while on the hunt in 1999 and 2000. Michael Malin, president and chief scientist of San Diego-based Malin Space Science Systems said in a statement released to the media: “The observation of a single, small dot at the centre of the disturbed location suggests that the vehicle remained more or less intact after its fall. They operate the camera aboard Global Surveyor.

They would be making available their findings in the July issue of Sky & Telescope magazine and they are already available on the magazine’s website. More studies are in plan with fresh photos to be taken of the site by the Global Surveyor. Michael also said that they were quite surprised to find just one possible location of the missing Polar Lander and they would require more inputs from the Surveyor to be more confident about the discovery.

The failure of the Mars Polar Lander was a major blow for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration as they had just earlier lost another Mars Climate Orbiter. It was destroyed in the space while trying to enter the orbit of the red planet.