Mars Polar Lander still lost

Well, this is a bummer. Back on May 5, 2005, I reported that the Mars Polar Lander had been found. MPL was a NASA probe that crashed into Mars, presumably due to a combined hardware and software error (due to a glitch, the landing rockets may have switched off when it was still well above the surface, so it crashed instead of landing softly). In that May 5 entry in my blog, I showed where the orbiting Mars Global Surveyor may have spotted the doomed lander. I was careful to note the identification wasn’t 100% positive…

… and, unfortunately, it turns out MPL was not seen after all. As reported by the team who designed, built, and operate the Mars Orbiting Camera ^*, the image that sure looked like MPL before has changed significantly since then, indicating it’s not the crashed remains of the probe. Here’s the before and after picture (click it to get a bigger one):

Basically, what was thought to be light from the lander was really noise in the image, akin to static on your radio. This is a bummer, as it was rather cool to be able to see it. It doesn’t really change anything– the probe is still crashed, and we still aren’t precisely sure why (though we’re pretty sure). But having some imaging evidence might have led to better images, and more clues as to why the accident happened.

Hi Jenn!

October 24th, 2005 9:41 PM by Phil Plait in Cool stuff | 7 comments | RSS feed | Trackback >

7 Responses to “Mars Polar Lander still lost”

1. newsblaze Says:
October 24th, 2005 at 11:10 pm

The martians covered it with a tarp and covered that with dust!
2. metamorphium Says:
October 25th, 2005 at 12:54 am

I might have an explanation though, martians have definitely stolen it. I think they used spare parts to repair the bombed Mars Face (as if you wouldn’t know that this face is in fact a huge mechanism through which NASA communicates with Hoagland).
3. metamorphium Says:
October 25th, 2005 at 12:55 am

Sigh. err. should be martians and not NASA. I never get these conspiracies right.
4. aiabx Says:
October 25th, 2005 at 8:18 am

Can’t NASA hire a psychic to find it?
-Andy B
5. Evolving Squid Says:
October 25th, 2005 at 10:22 am

Did anyone check out the web site and see the pictures of the other landers, including details like the landers’ tracks across the planet surface. There’s a pretty serious cool factor.
6. CR Says:
October 27th, 2005 at 7:58 am

Who’s Jenn?
7. Video of the Sun - Skepticality Forums Says:
September 8th, 2007 at 2:34 pm

[...] I’ve got a view of the "C rock" from the front porch.rnrnAnyway, thanks to this bad, bad man it’s a dream I no longer have. If not for him I’d still happily think it was the [...]

About Bad Astronomy

Phil Plait, the creator of Bad Astronomy, is an astronomer, lecturer, and author. After ten years working on Hubble Space Telescope and six more working on astronomy education, he struck out on his own as a writer. He's written two books, dozens of magazine articles, and 12 bazillion blog articles. He is a skeptic and fights the abuse of science, but his true love is praising the wonders of real science.

The original BA site (with the Moon Hoax debunking, movie reviews, and all that) can be found here.

Contact me: The Bad Astronomer "at" gmail "dot" com




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