Deep Space 2

Mission

Kind: Lander / impactor

State: Spacecraft failure

Place: Mars

Operator: NASA / JPL

Instruments: 1) Impact accelerometer, 2) Water detection apparatus, 3) Soil conductivity probe, 4) Descent accelerometer,

Date

Start:

Duration: 334

Mission Ending

Disposal: failure in transit

Last Contact: 20:00, December 3, 1999 (UTC) (1999-12-03T20:00Z)

Rocket

Rocket: Delta II 7425

Kind: NASA / JPL

Manufacturer: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Mass: 2.4 kg (5.3 lb) each

Launch Site: Cape Canaveral AFS SLC-17

Flyby

"Requesting permission for flyby." Maverick - Top Gun

Orbit

"You’re going very fast when you’re on orbit, going around the world once every hour and a half." - Robert Crippen

Lander

Place: Mars

Component: Amundsen and Scott

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.