Whatever happened to . . . the Mars Global Surveyor?
Thursday, September 13, 2012 - 10:58
in Astronomy & Space
On September 11, 1997, the Mars Global Surveyor slipped into orbit around the Red Planet. Like JPL's Mariner and Viking missions before it, MGS (as it was affectionately known) fundamentally changed our view of Mars. First came the flybys, each of which returned close-up pictures of landscapes unlike anything anyone had ever seen before—and completely unlike one another. Even the orbiters that followed didn't truly provide a complete picture, says Arden Albee, professor of geology and planetary science, emeritus, and the MGS project scientist. "They didn't have the coverage, or the resolution. What we had was the blind men and the elephant; after MGS there could be no more global surprises."