Donald Savage

Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

August 12, 1993
(Phone: 202/358-1600)

Jim Doyle
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif
(Phone: 818/354-5011)

RELEASE: 93-146

NASA NAMES IMAGING PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR FOR MESUR

PATHFINDER

Peter Smith of the University of Arizona, Tuscon, has been

named Principal Investigator for the imaging system for the MESUR
Pathfinder lander, NASA announced today.

MESUR (for Mars Environmental Survey) Pathfinder is a small

Discovery-class mission that NASA proposes to launch to Mars in
1996 which will place a lander and rover on the surface of Mars in
1997. Once on the surface, the camera will obtain a 360-degree
panoramic image of the landing site and also will acquire images
of specific areas at intervals during the year-long mission.

Martin Marietta Astronautics Group, Denver, Colo., was named

as the prime instrument contractor. The Max Planck Institute for
Aeronomy, Lindau, Germany, will provide the image detector and its
supporting electronics.

Smith's proposal for an imaging system for the MESUR

Pathfinder lander was submitted earlier this year in response to a
NASA announcement of opportunity for the mission. Dr. Wesley
Huntress, NASA Associate Administrator for the Office of Space
Science, Washington, D.C. was the selecting official.

Imaging System Description

 The camera is a side-by-side charged-coupled device (CCD)
stereo imager which sits on top of a "jack-in-the-box" mast that
pops up one meter above the lander. The camera has a 12-position
color filter wheel and is fully controllable in both elevation and
side-to-side (azimuth) motion. The optics do not require active
focusing.

The field of view for each eye is 14.4 degrees square and has
a resolution of six-tenths of a millimeter near the lander.

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The filter wheel contains eight color filters optimized for

Mars geology, three color filters for atmospheric water vapor and
dust measurements and one broadband filter for stereo imaging with
both eyes.

The camera will be used for science experiments, including

filter-wheel spectral mapping of the landing site to determine its
composition and to identify rocks which may be designated as
targets for further investigation. Spectral mapping also will
study weathering processes and products in the dust, soil and
rocks of Mars.

Images also will be taken to study phenomena which occur over

time, such as frost, dune formation and seasonal changes.

NASA also announced the selection of Dr. Jens Martin Knudsen

of the University of Copenhagen as a co-investigator, to provide a
magnetic properties investigation for the mission in conjunction
with Smith's team. He will provide five magnets of varying
strengths to capture wind-blown magnetic dust particles.

Other co-investigators for the imaging experiment are Drs.

Robert Singer, Martin Tomasko, Lyn Doose and Daniel Britt, all of
the University of Arizona, Tuscon; Dr. Larry Soderblom, U.S.
Geological Survey, Flagstaff, Ariz., and Dr. H. Uwe Keller, Max
Planck Institute for Aeronomy.

The Arizona team proposed to develop and deliver camera

hardware and one flight instrument, accompanied by operational and
data compression software. The effort, estimated at $5 million in
fiscal year 1992 dollars, will culminate with the delivery of the
flight imaging system in late 1995.

The MESUR Pathfinder will use a small robotic rover to

explore the region within about 50 meters of the landing site. In
contrast to the three-color imaging provided by the two Viking
landers in the late 1970s, the MESUR Pathfinder lander imaging
system will be capable of imaging in a variety of spectral bands
to determine mineral content within view of the lander.

The spectral channels are particularly sensitive to iron and

pyroxene minerals -- dark, silicon-based, crystal-like rocks.

The primary mission is for 1 month on the surface of Mars,

with a goal of 1 year of extended mission.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., will

manage the MESUR Pathfinder mission for NASA's Office of Space
Science, Headquarters, Washington, D.C.

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