NASA engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory have agreed a strategy for placing the Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) into its operational orbit, using an aerobraking technique which it is hoped will not further damage one of the craft's solar panels, which did not fully extend after launch in November 1996.
The errant panel will have to be rotated 180¹ to prevent it from folding up on to the spacecraft, thereby ruining the mission.
The MGS will enter an initial Martian orbit on 11 September, using a conventional rocket firing, but the solar panels will be used as "brakes" to reduce the speed of the orbit for four months, to place into an eventual operational orbit.
nA sister craft, the Mars Pathfinder, is scheduled to land on the planet on 4 July, to deploy a small roving vehicle. The mission will be the first Mars landing to be achieved since 1976.
Source: Flight International
