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Interdisciplinary Teams Chosen For Mars Pathfinder Mission

PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Contact: Diane Ainsworth

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                     
February 26, 1997

INTERDISCIPLINARY TEAMS CHOSEN FOR MARS PATHFINDER MISSION

     Thirteen participating scientists and a six-member team of 
experts dedicated to studying the atmosphere and weather on Mars 
will enhance the scope of scientific investigations as new 
members of NASA's Mars Pathfinder mission.  
 
     The scientists, selected from about 60 proposals submitted 
to NASA in response to an announcement of opportunity, will 
augment the existing science teams, direct new investigations not 
covered by the present teams, and perform interdisciplinary 
investigations using one or more instruments onboard the lander 
and rover.
 
     "The purpose of the Participating Scientist Program is to 
allow the expansion of existing principal investigator teams as 
they enter the active period of mission operations, data 
collection, analysis and archival activities," said Dr. Matthew 
Golombek, Pathfinder project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion 
Laboratory. "These newcomers have a variety of interdisciplinary 
interests and areas of expertise that will augment our first 
direct studies of Mars in more than 20 years."
 
     Mars Pathfinder, launched from Cape Canaveral, FL, on Dec. 
4, 1996, is currently en route to the red planet and scheduled to 
land in an ancient flood basin called Ares Vallis on Independence 
Day. The lander carries a small rover that will roll off and 
explore its surroundings, and science instruments that will 
measure the composition of surface materials in a landing area 
that is hundreds of square meters in size. Direct measurements on 
the ground will establish what scientists call "ground truth," or 
validation of geologic features that will be studied from space 
by a companion orbiter, known as Mars Global Surveyor, and future 
orbiters.
 
     Pathfinder's science instruments include a stereo imager 
called IMP, or Imager for Mars Pathfinder, mounted on an 
extendible mast on the lander, with 12 spectral filters for each 
"eye," an alpha proton X-ray spectrometer on the rover, and an 
atmospheric structure instrument and meteorology package. In 
addition, the rover carries forward stereo cameras and a rear 
color camera and performs a variety of technology and mobility 
experiments so that future rovers may be developed to more 
effectively navigate the surface.
     
     Using these instruments, the newly selected investigators 
will carry out a variety of studies along with the existing 
imaging and spectrometry teams to understand more about the 
composition of the Martian surface, the structure of the Martian 
atmosphere and prevailing weather patterns on this planetary 
neighbor.   

     The science and technology investigations will be used to 
better understand:
     - Mars surface morphology and geology at the scale of 
centimeters and meters, such as soils, rocks and hills, as 
well as their size and distributions on the surface.
     - The composition and mineralogy of rocks, soil and surface 
materials using the spectral filters of the lander imager 
and the alpha proton X-ray spectrometer measurements.
     - Basic soil mechanics and the magnetic properties of 
Martian dust. Soil mechanics such as cohesion, angles of 
internal friction and slippage will be determined by the 
rover. A series of magnets placed on the spacecraft will be 
imaged to determine the magnetic properties of dust that 
adheres to the wheels. 
     - The structure of the Martian atmosphere will be measured 
during entry and descent to understand variations in 
temperature, pressure and density with respect to altitude.

     After landing, a meteorology package will tell scientists 
about the weather on Mars. Imaging wind socks will show the 
wind profile up to a meter above the surface. Imaging the 
atmosphere will determine aerosol characteristics, such as 
size and shape of airborne dust and water vapor abundance. 

     Tracking of lander telemetry signals will allow 
measurements of Pathfinder's location in space and the 
location of the pole of Mars. After a few months of 
tracking, scientists will be able to infer the interior 
structure of the planet and whether Mars possesses a 
metallic core.

     In addition to the 13 new science members, six atmospheric 
scientists will become part of the Facility Instrument Science 
Team, which was selected to conduct instrument investigations to 
optimize operations and the science return from Pathfinder's 
Atmospheric Structure Instrument/Meteorology Package (ASI/MET) 
experiment. They will conduct the initial scientific analyses of 
data and produce calibrated, referenced data that can be used by 
the entire scientific community.

     A complete list of selected scientists from all over the 
United States and Europe, including the names of their 
investigations and the scientists' home institutions, follows. 
Additional information about the Pathfinder mission is available 
on the World Wide Web at http://mpfwww.jpl.nasa.gov/.

     The Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the Mars Pathfinder 
mission for NASA's Office of  Space Science, Washington, D.C.

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Participating Scientists Program

    Rock and boulder populations study, M. Malin, Malin Space 
Science Systems, Inc., San Diego, CA.

    Mars Pathfinder wind sock experiment: Characterization of 
aeolian processes at the landing site, R. Sullivan, Arizona State 
University, Tempe.

    Normative mineralogy of Mars Pathfinder rocks, H. 
McSween, University of Tennessee, Knoxville. 

    Mineralogy of the Mars Pathfinder landing site, J. Bell,  
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.

    Rover science and exploration, H. J. Moore,  US 
Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA.

    Geological implications of the Pathfinder magnetic 
experiments, R. Hargraves,      Princeton University, Princeton, 
NJ.

    Tracking Pathfinder to study Martian interior and 
climate, W. Folkner,  NASA      Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 
Pasadena, CA.

    Geologic investigations using lander imager photographs 
of Phobos and Deimos, S. Murchie, Applied Physics Laboratory, 
Laurel, MD.

    Virtual reality on Mars Pathfinder, C. Stoker, NASA Ames 
Research Center, Mountain View, CA.

   Mars Pathfinder: Photogrammetric characterization of the 
landing site and 
geoscientific evaluation of imaging data, R. Jaumann, DLR 
Institute for Planetary Exploration, Berlin, Germany.

    Investigation of Mars atmosphere structure, A. Seiff,  
NASA Ames Research Center, Mountain View, CA. 

    Comparison between Mars and Earth atmospheric surface 
boundary layers, S. Larsen, Risoe National Laboratory, Roskilde, 
Denmark.

    Mars atmosphere thermal tidal studies, R. Haberle, NASA 
Ames Research Center, Mountain View, CA.

    Atmospheric Structure Instrument/Meteorology Package (ASI/MET) 
Facility Instrument Science Team

    Meteorological variability in the Martian subtropics, J. 
Barnes, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR.

    An investigation of the structure of the upper atmosphere 
of Mars, J.T. Schofield,  NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, 
Pasadena, CA.

     Pathfinder ASI/MET thermal balance experiment, D. Crisp,  
NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA.

    Studies of the Martian boundary layer: Heat and momentum 
fluxes, G. Wilson,     Arizona State University, Tempe.

    Reduction and analysis of Mars Pathfinder atmospheric 
structure data,   
J. Magalhaes,  NASA Ames Research Center, Mountain View, CA.

    Diurnal variations in Mars Pathfinder meteorology data, 
J. Murphy,  NASA Ames Research Center, Mountain View, CA.

Primary Pathfinder Science Teams

Imaging Team:
  Drs. Peter Smith, principal investigator, and co-
investigators D. Britt, L. Soose, R. Singer and M. 
Tomasko, University of Arizona, Tucson; R. Greeley, 
Arizona State University, Tempe, who provided the wind 
socks; H.E. Keller, Max Planck Institute for Aeronomie, 
Germany, who provided the charged couple device and 
associated electronics; F. Gliem, Technical University of 
Braunchweig, Germany, who provided the image compression 
software; J.M. Knudsen, University of Copenhagen, 
Denmark, who provided the magnets; and L. Soderblom, U.S. 
Geological Survey, Flagstaff, AZ.

Alpha Proton X-Ray Spectrometer Team:

  Drs. Rudolf Rieder, principal investigator, and co-
investigator H. Waenke, both of the Max Planck Institute 
for Chemistry, Germany; and co-investigator T. Economou, 
University of Chicago, who is providing the x-ray portion 
of the instrument.


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