textfiles/ufo/marsobver.ufo

.                 RCA ASTRO RECEIVES CONTRACT FOR MARS OBSERVER 
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.      The Jet Propulsion Laboratory has selected the Astro-Electronics 
Division of RCA, located in Princeton, New Jersey as spacecraft contractor 
for the Mars Observer mission.  This is the first of the Planetary Observers, 
a series of low cost missions for the exploration of the inner solar system.
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.     In order to achieve the requisite economies, a new procurement 
philosophy is being utilized.  Rather than "reinvent the wheel" by designing 
a new vehicle from scratch for each mission, JPL's approach emphasizes use 
of existing, production line spacecraft designs and technology, particularly 
platforms originally designed as Earth-orbiting communication or weather 
satellites.  These will be refitted for the contemplated mission by the 
addition of scientific instruments, chosen to fit within the constraints of 
the existing spacecraft design, and whatever engineering modifications may be 
appropriate to transform an Earth-orbital satellite into a spacecraft capable 
of traveling to and conducting experiments at other bodies in the inner solar 
system.  In the case of the Mars Observer, the spacecraft selected after a 
competitive procurement process will be based on RCA Astro's SATCOM 
communications satellite.  The electronic subsystems will use proven designs 
from the TIROS and DMSP series of meterological satellites.
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.     Present plans call for the spacecraft to be launched on an August 1990 
Space Shuttle mission.  An upper stage will then be used to inject it into an 
interplanetary transfer orbit.  The upper stage which has been selected for 
the mission is the Transfer Orbit Stage (TOS) which has been developed by 
Orbital Sciences Corporation of Vienna, Virginia as a privately financed 
venture.  After approximately a one year transit flight, the spacecraft will 
arrive in the Martian vicinity and go into orbit around the planet.  The 
initial orbit will be adjusted into a nearly circular, sun-synchronous, low 
altitude polar orbit.  The probe's mission is to last for one Martian year, 
slightly less than two Earth years.  Scientific objectives are modest and 
well defined.  The principal purpose of the Mars Observer mission is to flesh 
out knowledge gained by the Mariner and Viking missions of the 1960's and 
70's.  The spacecraft will gather geoscience date by repetitive mapping of 
the Martian surface and climatological data by observation of the seasonal 
variation of the planet's atmosphere.  It is hoped that this will resolve 
still unanswered questions about the Martian surface and atmosphere and how 
they interact.
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.     Mission operations for the Mars Observer as well as future planetary 
observer missions will be conducted from a new multimission operations 
facility at JPL called the Space Flight Operations Center.
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.                           AN EXCURSION INTO HISTORY
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.     The Mars Observer program is in way a reminder of just how far we've 
come in a relatively short period of time.  Mars makes its closest approach 
to the Earth, about thirty-five million miles, once every seventeen years.  
(The last such event occurred in 1971, and the next will be two years from 
now in 1988.)  These used to be eagerly anticipated by astronomers who, on 
each such occasion hoped to unravel some of the mysteries of the Red Planet.
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.     The excitement began in the Nineteenth Century when the Italian 
astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli reported he had observed some dark lines on 
the Martian surface which he called "canali."  In Italian this simply means 
"channels."  However, the coincidence with the English word "canal" 
immediately fueled speculation that Mars supported not only intelligent life 
but an advanced civilization capable of undertaking a planet-wide engineering 
project, the construction of a vast irrigation system to bring water from the 
planets polar caps to its arid desert regions.  (Today it is theorized that 
what Schiaparelli actually saw may have been chains of craters on the Martian 
surface.  In his relatively small telescope these appeared to be linked 
together to form a continuous line.)
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.     The possibility that Mars might be inhabited inspired, among other 
things, H. G. Well's classic story The War of the Worlds, which depicted a 
Martian invasion of the Earth.  When produced as a radio program by Orson 
Wells in 1938, this created panic among listeners who thought they had tuned 
into a newscast instead of a drama.  On a more serious scientific level, some 
reports say that during Mars 1937 approach the Navy ordered its ships to 
confine their radio traffic to essential messages so as to enhance the 
likelihood of picking up possible Martian transmissions.  Not to be outdone, 
the Army had team of cryptoanalysts headed by William Friedman (who on the 
eve of the Second World War would break the Japanese PURPLE code) standing by 
to decipher any messages received.
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.     The 1954 event was likewise eagerly awaited.  This would be the first 
occasion on which Mars could be observed through the 200 inch Mount Palomar 
telescope.  It was hoped that this instrument could not only confirm the 
existence of the "canali" but determine if they followed great circle 
tracks, which would be evidence of artificial construction.  One writer 
looked  beyond 1954 to the 1971 apparition and stated that it was not too 
much  to expect that there might be a telescope outside the Earth's 
atmosphere  by that point, although even he did not venture to predict that 
by then spacecraft from Earth would have flown by the planet.