Douglas Isbell

Headquarters, Washington, DC February 7, 1996

(Phone: 202/358-1753)

RELEASE: 96-25

RUSSIAN INSTRUMENT ON MARS LANDER WILL MONITOR

ATMOSPHERIC DUST

A small, lightweight Russian laser-ranging device designed

to measure dust and haze in the Martian atmosphere has been
selected by NASA officials to fly aboard a U.S. Mars lander
spacecraft due for launch in January 1999.

Known as the 1998 Mars Surveyor Lander, the mission will be

the first ever sent to the polar regions of Mars, where it
should encounter layers of icy terrain that represent a
preserved record of the planet's climate history.

The laser-ranging device, or lidar, will be provided to

NASA by Dr. Vyacheslav Linkin of the Space Research Institute
(IKI) of the Russian Academy of Science, under the sponsorship
of the Russian Space Agency (RSA).

"Measurements from this device should help us better

understand the relationship between the amount of dust and
aerosols in the lower-most part of the Martian atmosphere and
the planet's regional weather conditions," said Wesley T.
Huntress Jr., NASA Associate Administrator for Space Science.
"In addition to this important science goal, the lidar will be
the first Russian instrument to fly aboard a U.S. planetary
spacecraft, so it represents a new degree of international
cooperation in the exploration of our solar system."

Mounted on top of the lander for a clear view of the

Martian sky, the 2.2 lb. (approximately 1 kilogram) instrument
will send short pulses of focused light into the atmosphere and
then measure the amount of light scattered back. This effect
is similar to the way that automobile headlights reflect fog --
the thicker the fog, the more light that is scattered back to
the car's driver. The Mars-bound lidar device also can operate
in a passive mode, where it uses the Sun as a light source and
measures the brightness of the sky.
 The 1998 Mars Surveyor Lander also will carry a lightweight
camera to take images of the surrounding terrain during the
spacecraft's final descent, and an integrated surface science
payload that includes a mast-mounted imager, a meteorological
station, a soil composition analyzer and a robotic arm to dig
trenches in the icy soil of the south pole.

A companion spacecraft to the Lander, called the 1998 Mars

Surveyor Orbiter, will be launched in December 1998. Russia's
IKI is providing optical hardware for one of the Orbiter's
instruments, the Pressure Modulator Infrared Radiometer.

Both of these spacecraft are part of NASA's Mars Surveyor

Program, a decade-long series of cost-capped missions to Mars
featuring two launches every 26 months. Lockheed Martin
Astronautics, Denver, CO, is building both the 1998 Orbiter and
Lander for NASA under a $94 million contract.

The Mars Surveyor Program kicks off November 1996 with the
launch of the Mars Global Surveyor Orbiter. The Mars
Pathfinder Lander, developed under NASA's Discovery Program,
will be launched in December 1996.

-end-

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