Mars Surveyor 2001 Lander
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Mars Surveyor 2001 Lander was a planned NASA Mars probe which was cancelled in May 2000 in the wake of the failures of the Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander missions in late 1999. The Lander's companion spacecraft Mars Surveyor 2001 Orbiter, renamed 2001 Mars Odyssey, was launched and went into orbit about Mars on October 24, 2001.
Prior to mission cancellation, cost overruns and technical problems caused the Lander design to be rescoped, and the planned large Athena rover was replaced by a small rover duplicating the Sojourner which was a part of the Mars Pathfinder mission. The Athena did later make it to Mars, however, with two such rovers making up the Mars Exploration Rover Mission of 2004. The second of these, MER-B Opportunity, landed at Mars Surveyor 2001 Lander's target site, Meridiani Planum.
It is expected that the Mars Descent Imager (MARDI) camera and other components built for the Mars Surveyor 2001 Lander will be used on the 2007 Mars Scout lander, Phoenix.
External links
- NSSDC Master Catalog entry (http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/database/MasterCatalog?sc=MS2001L)