NASA's Mars Polar Lander Found at Last?

Ant wrote in to mention that the Sky and Telescope is running a story (with photographs and other images) that NASA's Mars Polar Lander (MPL) may have been found. From the article: "On December 9, 1999, it was supposed to touch down near the red planet's south pole but disappeared after entering the Martian atmosphere without a trace. 5.5 years later, scientists think they may have finally located the lander's wreckage and confirmed what went wrong with the mission...The search for Mars Polar Lander was hampered by inexperience: the team didn't know what a parachute should look like or how the ground would be disturbed by the landing rockets. Lessons learned from observations of the Mars Exploration Rover landing sites helped team members identify what they think are the parachute, the rocket-blast zone, and ultimately the lander itself."

Comments

Testing!

[Timberwolf0122]

If only they had a sensor that measured constant force exterted on a landing leg insted of the short impulse of landing.

Why is there not a standard design mars landing vehicle, one that can be used to deploy any payload upto say 8^3m meters in volume, it would solve a lot of issues and reduce the overall mission costs, if designed well it could be used to land on other bodies (moon/IO/Europa) with only a slight modification to fuel levels/Paracute size/airbag preasure.

Do I have this right? Parachute still white?

[djupedal]

The two rovers now in operation are risking issues due to dust covering their solar panels. And we've been reminded over and over how dust and wind have helped shape the surface of Mars for eons, etc.

But the parachute that has been laying around for the last 5+ years is still in one piece, just as it fell, and is as white as can be...

...is that what we're supposed to believe? How convenient that the raging elements didn't disturb it so NASA wonks could find it later.

Ummm... this isn't the optimal design

[blueZ3]

I don't think we've been doing this long enough to have enough data to say what the "best" design is on which to base such a "standard" lander. There have only been four or five successful landings on Mars. When that number reaches 20 or 30, perhaps we'll have enough information that your idea will be possible.