Why doesn the lander use airbags like Pathfinder?
The Mars Polar Lander was designed before Mars Pathdinfer’s airbag landing system was successfully demonstrated. The MPL landing system is derived from the landing system used by the two Viking landers, which landed successfully on Mars in 1976. 5. Does the lander have a rover? No. 6. Why doesn’t the lander have a rover? The MVACS integrated payload that NASA selected for MPL lander did not include a rover. Using a rover like the Sojourner rover on Mars Pathfinder for this mission was out of the question because: (a) The total mass allocated to the lander’s integrated payload was 20 kg. For comparison, the total mass of the Sojourner Rover plus its lander-mounted support equipment was over 16 kg. Of this mass, only 0.74 kg was devoted to the Alpha-Proton X-Ray Spectrometer, the rover’s only science instrument. (b) The total cost of the MPL integrated payload was capped at $20 million. The total cost of reflying a copy of the Sojourner rover, as is planned by the Mars Surveyor Program ‘
The Mars Polar Lander was designed before Mars Pathdinfer’s airbag landing system was successfully demonstrated. The MPL landing system is derived from the landing system used by the two Viking landers, which landed successfully on Mars in 1976. 5. Does the lander have a rover? No. 6. Why doesn’t the lander have a rover? The MVACS integrated payload that NASA selected for MPL lander did not include a rover. Using a rover like the Sojourner rover on Mars Pathfinder for this mission was out of the question because: (a) The total mass allocated to the lander’s integrated payload was 20 kg. For comparison, the total mass of the Sojourner Rover plus its lander-mounted support equipment was over 16 kg. Of this mass, only 0.74 kg was devoted to the Alpha-Proton X-Ray Spectrometer, the rover’s only science instrument. (b) The total cost of the MPL integrated payload was capped at $20 million. The total cost of reflying a copy of the Sojourner rover, as is planned by the Mars Surveyor Program ‘
The Mars Polar Lander was designed before Mars Pathdinfer’s airbag landing system was successfully demonstrated. The MPL landing system is derived from the landing system used by the two Viking landers, which landed successfully on Mars in 1976. 5. Does the lander have a rover? No. 6. Why doesn’t the lander have a rover? The MVACS integrated payload that NASA selected for MPL lander did not include a rover. Using a rover like the Sojourner rover on Mars Pathfinder for this mission was out of the question because: (a) The total mass allocated to the lander’s integrated payload was 20kg. For comparison, the total mass of the Sojourner Rover plus its lander-mounted support equipment was over 16 kg. Of this mass, only 0.74 kg was devoted to the Alpha-Proton X-Ray Spectrometer, the rover’s only science instrument. (b) The total cost of the MPL integrated payload was capped at $20 million. The total cost of reflying a copy of the Sojourner rover, as is planned by the Mars Surveyor Program ‘0
