NASA Daily News Summary

For Release: May 27, 1999

Media Advisory m99-107

Summary:

-- News Release: First Global 3-D View of Mars Reveals Deep Basin and
Pathways for Water Flow
-- Video File for May 27, 1999
-- Upcoming STS-96 Live Events
-- Upcoming Live Interview Opportunity: Hurricane CAT Scan, May 28

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FIRST GLOBAL 3-D VIEW OF MARS REVEALS
DEEP BASIN AND PATHWAYS FOR WATER FLOW

An impact basin deep enough to swallow Mount Everest and surprising

slopes in Valles Marineris highlight a global map of Mars that will
influence scientific understanding of the red planet for years.
Generated by the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA), an instrument
aboard NASA's Mars Global Surveyor, the high-resolution map represents
27 million elevation measurements gathered in 1998 and 1999. The most
curious aspect of the topographic map is the striking difference between
the planet¹s low, smooth Northern Hemisphere and the heavily cratered
Southern Hemisphere, which sits, on average, about three miles (five
kilometers) higher than the north.

Contact at NASA Headquarters: Douglas Isbell, 202/358-1753;

Contact at NASA Goddard: Cynthia M. O'Carroll, 301/614-5563;
Contact at the Jet Propulsion Lab: Mary Hardin, 818/354-0344.

Full text of the release:

ftp://ftp.hq.nasa.gov/pub/pao/pressrel/1999/99-066.txt

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Video Advisory v99-102
May 27, 1999

Note: A TV schedule combining mission events and other NASA television

items is now available at
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/nasatv/schedule.html

Video File for May 27, 1999

ITEM 1 FIRST GLOBAL 3-D VIEW OF MARS (TRT 14:00)

ITEM 1A SCALE AND 3-D INFORMATION

Some of the sequences begin with a natural color image mosaic from
the Viking orbiters draped over the 3-D extruded MOLA data. The false-
colored MOLA images use two techniques to illustrate the 3-D martian
terrain. The average equatorial height is taken as the baseline and
colored yellow; warmer colors (orange-red-brown-white) denote higher
topography and cooler colors (green-blue-indigo) denote lower. The
data also has been rendered in 3-D, with the elevation multiplied by a
factor of five.

ITEM 1B GLOBAL VIEWS OF MARS

Generated by an instrument aboard NASA's Mars Global Surveyor
spacecraft called the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter (MOLA), the high-
resolution map represents 27 million measurements of elevation gathered
during March-April 1999 and the spring and summer of 1998.

ITEM 1C GLOBAL VIEWS - FLAT MAP

The topographic map illustrates the striking difference between the
planet's low, smooth Northern Hemisphere and the heavily cratered
Southern Hemisphere which sits on average about 3 miles (5 km) higher
than the north. The full range of topography on Mars is about 19 miles
(30 km), one and a half times the range of elevations found on Earth.

ITEM 1D HELLAS BASIN

The Hellas impact basin in the Southern Hemisphere of Mars is the
largest impact crater in the solar system at 1,300 miles (about 2000 km)
across.

ITEM 1E HELLAS BASIN FLY AROUND

The basin is surrounded by a ring of material that rises 1.5 miles
(about two km) above the surroundings and stretches out to 2,500 miles
(4,000 km) from the basin center. This ring of material, likely thrown
out of the basin during the impact of an asteroid, has a volume
equivalent to a 2.6-mile (4-km) thick layer spread over the continental
United States, and it contributes significantly to the high topography
in the Southern Hemisphere.

ITEM 1E Valles Marineris

Valles Marineris is a canyon that stretches about 1850 miles (3,000
km) and its deepest point is 5 miles (8 km) deep. The new data show
that the eastern part of the vast Valles Marineris canyon slopes away
from nearby outflow channels, with part of it lying a half-mile (about 1
km) below the level of the outflow channels.

ITEM F THARSIS RIDGE

A cluster of four enormous volcanoes can be seen in this flyby of
the Tharsis region. The most amazing of these giant volcanoes is
Olympus Mons, which rises about 15 miles (24 km) above the surrounding
plains.

ITEM G LONG DOWNHILL RUN

The difference in elevation between the hemispheres results in a
slope from the South Pole to North Pole that was the major influence on
the global-scale flow of water early in martian history. Scientific
models of watersheds using the new elevation map show that the Northern
Hemisphere lowlands would have drained three-quarters of the martian
surface.

ITEM H POLAR REGIONS

The current water inventory of Mars can be estimated using the new
data about the south polar cap and information about the North Pole
released last year. While the poles appear very different from each
other in visual images, they show a striking similarity in elevation
profiles. Based on understanding of the North Pole, this suggests that
the South Pole has a significant water ice component, in addition to
carbon dioxide ice. The concentric lines around the poles are artifacts
from the preliminary rendering.

ITEM I NORTH POLE REGION

Previously released November 1998

ITEM J LANDING SITE - MARS POLAR LANDER

The MOLA data will also help engineers assess the area where NASA's
Mars Polar Lander mission will set down on Dec. 3, and aid the selection
of future landing sites.

ITEM K MOLA / MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR -- ANIMATION

During the ongoing Mars Global Surveyor mission, the MOLA
instrument is collecting about 900,000 measurements of elevation every
day. MOLA was designed and built by the Laser Remote Sensing Branch of
the Laboratory for Terrestrial Physics at Goddard. The Mars Global
Surveyor mission is managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena,
CA.

ITEM L INTERVIEW EXCERPTS, DR. JIM GARVIN, MOLA Science Team,

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Contact at NASA Headquarters: Douglas Isbell, 202/358-1753;
Contact at NASA Goddard: Cynthia M. O'Carroll, 301/614-5563;
Contact at Jet Propulsion Lab: Mary Hardin, 818/354-0344.

*****
UPCOMING STS-96 LIVE EVENTS:

THURSDAY, MAY 27: 1:30 a.m. EDT, LAUNCH COVERAGE BEGINS

6:48 a.m. EDT, LAUNCH
7:45 a.m. EDT, POST LAUNCH PRESS CONFERENCE
FRIDAY, MAY 28: 11 a.m. EDT, MISSION STATUS BRIEFING
SATURDAY, MAY 29: 2 a.m. EDT, MISSION STATUS BRIEFING

*****
UPCOMING LIVE INTERVIEW OPPORTUNITY: HURRICANE CAT SCAN,
MAY 28

TOPIC: Weather forecasters are predicting that the 1999 Hurricane

Season will be another busy one, with four intense hurricanes and a
chance the U.S. will be hit by a major storm. Researchers at NASA will
be using a high-tech weather satellite to learn what¹s happening inside
this season¹s powerful storms. The world's first and only spaceborne
rain radar on the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM, pronounced
³Trim²) satellite allows scientists to create spectacular 3-D "CAT
scans" of precipitation rates and the height of the rain column inside
powerful hurricanes.

TALENT: NASA Research Meteorologist Dr. Marshall Shepherd

TIME: Friday, May 28, from 6:10 a.m. 10:15 a.m. EDT

To book an interview, call Deanna Corridon, 301/286-0041, or Wade

Sisler, 301/286-6256, 888-474-0914 pager.

The interviews will be broadcast on KU-Band -- Telstar 5, transponder 11

at 97 degrees West longitude, vertical polarization, frequency - 11929
MHz, and audio of 6.8 MHz.

*****
The NASA Video File airs at noon, 3 p.m., 6 p.m., 9
p.m. and midnight Eastern Time. NASA Television is available
on GE-2, transponder 9C at 85 degrees West longitude, with
vertical polarization. Frequency is on 3880.0 megahertz, with
audio on 6.8 megahertz.
Refer general questions about the video file to NASA
Headquarters, Washington, DC: Ray Castillo, 202/358-4555, or
Pam Poe, 202/358-0373.

During Space Shuttle missions, the full NASA TV schedule will

continue to be posted at:

http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/realdata/nasatv/schedule.html

For general information about NASA TV see:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv/

*****
Contract Awards

Contract awards are posted to the NASA Acquisition

Information Service Web site:

http://procurement.nasa.gov/EPS/award.html

*****
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*****

end of daily news summary