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updated: 16 March 2006
Malin Space Science Systems (MSSS) was established in 1990 to design, develop, operate, and conduct science investigations with instruments that fly on unmanned spacecraft. As of March 2006, MSSS has cameras on all 3 U.S. spacecraft presently operating in orbit around the planet Mars.
The initial focus of MSSS was on the development and operation of the Mars Observer Camera Ground Data System. After the loss of Mars Observer in August 1993, MSSS participated in studies aimed at recovering from the spacecraft loss, and was selected to provide the spare Mars Observer Camera for the re-flight mission, Mars Global Surveyor. At the same time, MSSS was developing a very small, modular camera system for future flight missions. That work culminated with the selection of MSSS to provide cameras for both the Mars Surveyor '98 Orbiter and Lander. Prior to the dual loss of '98 spacecraft, Mars Climate Orbiter (and the Mars Color Imager, MARCI) and the Mars Polar Lander (and the Mars Descent Imager, MARDI), MSSS was selected by Arizona State University to provide the Visible Imaging Subsystem of the THEMIS instrument aboard the Mars Odyssey 2001 orbiter, and by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) to provide a descent camera for the Mars Surveyor 2001 lander (subsequently canceled after the Polar Lander failure). The THEMIS instrument, operaed by ASU, has been in Mars orbit for over two years. The 2001 descent camera will fly on the Phoenix Mars Scout Mission in 2005. MSSS developed the Mars Color Imager (MARCI'05) and Context Camera (CTX) for the 2005 Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which began orbiting Mars in March 2006. In December 2004, MSSS was selected to provide three camera systems (Descent, HandLens, and Mast) for the 2009 Mars Science Laboratory mission, and three cameras for the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (2008) mission, under contract to Northwestern University (Mark Robinson, Principal Investigator).
Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera
This effort, under contract to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
continues to support operation of the camera during the Mars Global
Surveyor mission, presently in its 9th year of science operations.
The project is funded through at least the end of Fiscal Year 2006,
and MSSS is currently contributing to a proposal that would extend
the mission through FY 2008, so that the spacecraft can conduct
simultaneous observations of martian weather event while the new
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) is doing the same from a different
orbit. Included in the current contract are observation planning,
development of the commands to send to the spacecraft for the camera,
retrieving and processing the data returned from the camera by the
spacecraft, and analyzing and archiving the data.
More than 196,000 images have been taken, processed, and archived
since September 1997.
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
Mars Color Imager (MARCI) and
Context Camera (CTX)
These investigations, again under contract to the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, supported development of the MARCI and CTX for launch
aboard the 2005 orbiter, and now supports mission operations.
Changes to the MARCI based on lessons learned from the 1998 instrument
and dictated by the different orbit and mission parameters include
incorporation of a 180° field of view, new UV (ultraviolet) and
visible filters, and an interface adaptor to match the new spacecraft's
data bus. CTX is a new camera designed to take mono- and stereoscopic,
grayscale images at nearly MOC resolution (6 m/pixel from 300 km
altitude) over a much larger field-of-view (30 km). MRO began to
orbit the red planet on 10 March 2006.
Phoenix Scout Mars Lander
Mars Descent Imager (MARDI)
Under contract to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, this effort will
prepare the 2001 descent imaging system for flight
on the Phoenix spacecraft, which launches in 2007 and lands
on the northern plains of Mars in 2008.
Mars Science Laboratory imaging systems
For the 2009 NASA Mars rover mission, again under contract to JPL,
MSSS is developing three camera systems.
Dr. Malin is the Principal Investigator for the
Mast Camera (Mastcam)and
Mars Descent Imager (MARDI)
investigations; and Dr. Kenneth Edgett is the Principal Investigator
for the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI).
The three camera systems are being developed with a common set
of electronics.
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC)
This contract, with Northwestern University, supports the development
of LROC for Principal Investigator Mark Robinson. LROC consists of two
copies of the MRO CTX camera, with different lenses and a single copy of the
MRO MARCI for color and UV imaging of the Moon.
Mars Semi-Autonomous Rover Operations
This contract with JPL (managing NASA's Mars Advance Technology Program)
supports Principal Investigator Michael Ravine at MSSS and a subcontract
to Co-Investigator David Miller at University of Oklahoma for modification
of MSSS's Solar Rover 2 vehicle. This investigation will conduct a suite
of field tests over Mars-like terrain with traverse
distances in excess of 10 km (6.2 mi).
Mars Global Surveyor Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES)
Co-Investigator
This contract, with Arizona State University, supports
Dr. Malin's participation as a Co-Investigator on Phil
Christensen's MGS Thermal Emission
Spectrometer (TES) experiment.
Mars Odyssey Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) Co-Investigator
This contract, with Arizona State University, supports
Dr. Malin's participation as a Co-Investigator on Phil
Christensen's Thermal Emission
Imaging System (THEMIS) investigation.
Mars Exploration Rover Team Science Team Member
Under contract to Cornell University, Dr. Malin participates
as a member of the Mars Exploration
Rover science team.
Other Activities
In addition to the above activities, MSSS is developing
JunoCam for the Juno Jupiter Mission, launching
in ~2010, and has several contracts for Mars data analysis activities.