PHOTOGRAPHIC surveillance experts working for the US military believe they
have found NASA’s Mars Polar Lander, which was supposed to have crashed onto
Mars more than a year ago. Rumours have been circulating that the spacecraft is
standing intact on its landing legs, raising new questions about why it
failed.
The lander arrived near the Martian south pole in December 1999. But mission
controllers lost contact with it during its descent. An enquiry concluded that
as the spacecraft made its final descent towards the surface a software error
switched off its thrusters too early, sending the lander plummeting to the…
