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Dust And Soil Experiment Chosen For Mars 2001 Mission

MEDIA RELATIONS 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: John G. Watson

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                         February 27, 1998

DUST AND SOIL EXPERIMENT CHOSEN FOR MARS 2001 MISSION

     Potential hazards that the soil and dust of Mars might pose 
to human explorers will be studied by an instrument recently 
selected by NASA to fly on the Mars Surveyor 2001 lander 
spacecraft.

     The Mars Environmental Compatibility Assessment (MECA) was 
one of two experiments chosen by NASA this month from a field of 
39 proposals for instruments to perform studies that will benefit 
eventual human exploration of the red planet.

     MECA will analyze the dust and soil of Mars to investigate 
potential hazards to human explorers. The instrument will examine 
dust and soil using an optical microscope provided by the Max 
Planck Institute for Aeronomy in Germany and the University of 
Arizona. 
   
     In the experiment, soil will be mixed with water carried 
aboard the spacecraft to investigate such topics as the acidity 
or alkalinity of the soil; potential for oxidation; electrical 
conductivity; and the presence of potentially toxic dissolved 
ions on Mars. The experiment will also monitor the charge buildup 
on the instrument's digging arm to learn about electrostatic 
buildup.
 
     The 2001 Mars missions represent the first step in an agency 
initiative to fly experiments supporting NASA's Human Exploration 
and Development of Space program on robotic exploration missions 
carried out by NASA's Office of Space Science.  The 2001 lander 
is scheduled to launch in April 2001, while its companion orbiter 
spacecraft is set to launch approximately one month earlier.

     NASA's Office of Life and Microgravity Sciences and 
Applications sponsors MECA. Dr. Michael Hecht of the Jet 
Propulsion Laboratory is project manager, Dr. Thomas Meloy of 
West Virginia University is principal investigator and John 
Marshall of NASA's Ames Research Laboratory is deputy principal 
investigator. 

     JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology, 
Pasadena, CA.

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