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Mars Pathfinder Update - July 21, 1997


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 

               Mars Pathfinder Mission Status
                      July 21, 1997
               10 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time

     The Mars Pathfinder flight team successfully reestablished 
contact with the Pathfinder lander and rover early this morning, 
completing several communications sessions using both the low-
gain and high-gain antennas. 

     "What a difference a day makes," said Brian Muirhead, 
Pathfinder project manager. "The project team has successfully 
regained full communication capability on both the low-gain and 
high-gain antennas. The team is extremely pleased with our 
current status." 

     Most of the communications problem experienced over the 
weekend was associated with ground operations, not with the 
spacecraft on Mars, Muirhead said. "We'll be working to eliminate 
the cause of these problems in the coming days, as we return to a 
more normal mode of operations."

     The flight team successfully initiated its first low-gain 
communications session of the Martian day at 10:38 p.m. Pacific 
Daylight Time on July 20, then began a second low-gain session at 
1:36 a.m. July 21. Both sessions were returning data at the low 
data rate of 40 bits per second. At 3:22 a.m. PDT, the team 
conducted a third, brief low-gain session at a slightly higher 
data rate of 150 bits per second. 

     "All sessions worked perfectly, and we gained all of the 
basic engineering and telemetry data that had been stored 
onboard," Muirhead reported. "We verified that all spacecraft 
subsystems were healthy."

     At 4:50 a.m. PDT, the team conducted a brief high-gain 
antenna session to make sure the high-gain antenna was pointed at 
Earth. A full high-gain antenna session at 8,200 bits per second 
was later performed beginning at 6:43 a.m. PDT.  The team 
acquired all data on lander and rover health and completed 
acquisition of all of the spacecraft engineering data. They also 
sent a software update to correct sequences onboard the flight 
computer which have caused it to automatically reset itself.   

     Tonight's science activities will include downlinking 
measurements of a white-colored rock named Scooby Doo and 
continuing to acquire data from a full resolution color panoramic 
photograph of the landing site.  

     On this Martian day, Sol 17, Earth rose over the newly named 
Sagan Memorial Station at 8:07 p.m. PDT yesterday July 20.  
Sunrise was at 11:15 p.m. July 20 and Earth set occurred this 
morning at 9:45 a.m. July 21.  

     An audio update on Pathfinder's status can be heard by 
calling 1-800-391-6654.

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