Deep Space 2

Deep Space 2

DS2 probe with heatshield and mounting
Mission type	Lander / impactor
Operator	NASA / JPL
Website	nmp.jpl.nasa.gov/ds2/
Mission duration	334
Spacecraft properties
Manufacturer	NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Launch mass	2.4 kg (5.3 lb) each
Power	300mW Li-SOCl2 batteries
Start of mission
Launch date	20:21:10, January 3, 1999 (1999-01-03T20:21:10)
Rocket	Delta II 7425
Launch site	Cape Canaveral AFS SLC-17
End of mission
Disposal	failure in transit
Last contact	20:00, December 3, 1999 (1999-12-03T20:00)
Mars impactor
Spacecraft component	Amundsen and Scott
Impact date	~20:15 UTC ERT, December 3, 1999
Impact site	73°S 210°W (projected)
Transponders
Band	S-band
Bandwidth	8 kbit/s
Instruments Impact accelerometer Water detection apparatus Soil conductivity probe Descent accelerometer
Mars Surveyor 98 mission logo

Deep Space 2 was a NASA probe part of the New Millennium Program. It included two highly advanced miniature space probes that were sent to Mars aboard the Mars Polar Lander in January 1999. The probes were named "Scott" and "Amundsen", in honor of Robert Falcon Scott and Roald Amundsen, the first explorers to reach the Earth's South Pole. Intended to be the first spacecraft to penetrate below the surface of another planet, after entering the Mars atmosphere DS2 was to detach from the Mars Polar Lander mother ship and plummet to the surface using only an aeroshell impactor, with no parachute. The mission was declared a failure on March 13, 2000, after all attempts to reestablish communications following the descent went unanswered.

Overview

Deep Space 2, also known as "Mars Microprobe," was the second spacecraft developed under the NASA New Millennium Program to flight-test advanced technologies concepts for space missions. The mission was intended to do an engineering validation of the concept of a penetrator probe, impacting the planet at high velocity, instead slowing down for a soft landing as done by the probes conventionally used for planetary exploration. The penetrator concept is potentially a lower-cost approach, and has a proposed advantage of giving access to the subsurface of the planet being studied (in this case, Mars.)

Spacecraft

Each probe weighed 2.4 kg (5.3 lb) and was encased in a protective aeroshell. They rode to Mars aboard another spacecraft, the Mars Polar Lander.

Upon arrival near the south polar region of Mars on December 3, 1999, the basketball-sized shells were released from the main spacecraft, plummeting through the atmosphere and hitting the planet's surface at over 179 m/s (590 ft/s). On impact, each shell was designed to shatter, and its grapefruit-sized probe was to punch through the soil and separate into two parts. The lower part, called the forebody, was designed to penetrate as far as 0.6 meters (2 ft 0 in) into the soil. The upper part of the probe, or aftbody, was designed to remain on the surface in order to radio data to the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft in orbit around Mars. The Mars Global Surveyor would act as a relay in order to send the data collected back to Earth. The two sections of the probe were designed to remain connected via a data cable.

Mission failure

The probes reached Mars apparently without incident, but communication was never established after impact. It is not known what the cause of failure was. The crash review board suggests several possible causes for failure:

• the probe radio equipment had a low chance of surviving the impact.
• the probes may simply have hit ground that was too rocky for survival.
• The batteries on the probes, which had been charged prior to launch almost a year earlier, might not have retained sufficient power.

Deep Space 2 penetrator

Deep Space 2 penetrator 

DS2 functional animation

DS2 functional animation 

DS2 probe components

DS2 probe components 

See also

• Exploration of Mars
• Deep Space 1
• List of missions to Mars
• List of spacecraft powered by non-rechargeable batteries

Bibliography

• JPL, Deep Space 2 Fact Sheet
• NSSDC Data Archive, Deep Space 2
• "Press Kit: 1998 Mars Missions" (.PDF) (Press release). National Aeronautics and Space Administration. December 8, 1998. Retrieved April 22, 2009. 

External links

• Deep Space 2 website at JPL

Features and artificial objects on Mars - clickable map

Interactive imagemap of the global topography of Mars, overlain with locations of Mars landers and rovers
Red label = Rover; Blue label = Lander; bold text = currently active. Click on label to go to the page. Hover your mouse to see the names of prominent geographic features, and click on map to go to its page in Wikipedia.
Reds and pinks are higher elevation (+3 km to +8 km); yellow is 0 km; greens and blues are lower elevation (down to −8 km). Whites (>+12 km) and browns (>+8 km) are the highest elevations.Coloring of the base map indicates relative elevations, based on data from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor. Axes are latitude and longitude; Poles are not shown.

(See also: Mars map & Mars Memorials & Mars Memorials map) (view • discuss)

← Beagle 2 (2003)

Curiosity (2012) →

Deep Space 2 (1999) →

Mars 2 (1971) →

← Mars 3 (1971)

Mars 6 (1973) →

Polar Lander (1999) ↓

↑ Opportunity (2004)

← Phoenix (2008)

Schiaparelli EDM (2016) →

← Sojourner (1997)

Spirit (2004) ↑

Viking 1 (1976) →

Viking 2 (1976) →