Donald Savage
Headquarters, Washington, DC                March 26, 2001
(Phone: 202/358-1547)

Jennifer Lafley
National Imagery and Mapping Agency, Bethesda, MD
(Phone: 301/227-3089)

RELEASE:  01-52

NASA AND NIMA BEGIN JOINT REVIEW OF
MARS POLAR LANDER SEARCH ANALYSIS

     NASA and the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA) 
today said researchers from the two agencies will continue a 
joint review of the initial results of NIMA's search for the 
missing Mars Polar Lander. This analysis is extremely 
challenging, and has thus far produced no definitive 
conclusions.

NIMA researchers used high resolution imagery from NASA's 
Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft, now in orbit around the Red 
Planet, in their effort to locate the lander and its 
components, including a protective aeroshell, heat shield and 
parachute. 

One of the principal challenges in locating the missing 
lander using images from the orbiter is that the Mars Polar 
Lander is only somewhat larger -- about six and a half feet 
across -- than the smallest objects the orbiter's camera can 
see on the surface of Mars. 

In an initial analysis, NIMA researchers reviewed and 
assessed features seen in several images that they believe 
could be indicative of the lander and its protective 
aeroshell. An alternative view presented by NASA is that 
these features could be noise introduced by the camera 
system, so further work between NASA and NIMA will be 
conducted to address differences of interpretation.

Both agencies intend to continue working together on the 
analysis of these images and of additional images of the 
landing site, which will be collected later this year.

The Mars Polar Lander was lost during its attempted landing 
on Mars, Dec. 3, 1999. Within two weeks, NASA began obtaining 
high resolution images of the intended landing site using the 
camera onboard the orbiting Mars Global Surveyor in an 
attempt to locate the lander on the Martian  surface. No sign 
of the Mars Polar Lander was found in the NASA searches. In 
an independent search, starting about the same time, NASA and 
NIMA began working together to analyze images of the planet's 
surface. 

NIMA, a Combat Support Agency of the Department of Defense 
and a member of the National Intelligence Community, provides 
imagery intelligence and geospatial information in support of 
national security objectives. Headquartered in Bethesda, MD, 
NIMA operates major facilities in northern Virginia; 
Washington, DC; and St. Louis, MO.