NASA Wrapping Up Mars Map Mission
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor is close to finishing its main mission, after having gathered tens of thousands of images of the Red Planet.
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PASADENA, Calif. (AP) - The robotic probe began mapping the planet in 1999, returning to Earth more data than all other missions to Mars combined.
The results included evidence suggesting water may have once flowed on Mars, possibly collecting in pools in the distant past. Some scientists theorize that lakes and seas may have sustained martian life.
Over the next 14 months, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration probe will do additional science work, and will scout out landing sites for future spacecraft. The main mission was to wrap up on Wednesday.
Eventually, engineers hope to use the probe to relay commands to twin rovers slated to land on the planet in January 2004.
Mars Global Surveyor was launched in November 1996.
The results included evidence suggesting water may have once flowed on Mars, possibly collecting in pools in the distant past. Some scientists theorize that lakes and seas may have sustained martian life.
Over the next 14 months, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration probe will do additional science work, and will scout out landing sites for future spacecraft. The main mission was to wrap up on Wednesday.
Eventually, engineers hope to use the probe to relay commands to twin rovers slated to land on the planet in January 2004.
Mars Global Surveyor was launched in November 1996.
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