Mars Polar Lander Mission Status February 16, 2000

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE

JET PROPULSION LABORATORY

CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

PASADENA, CALIFORNIA 91109. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011

Radio scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have
made a detailed analysis of data taken by a radio telescope at
Stanford University on Jan. 4 and believe the suspect signal is
more likely of terrestrial origin and not from Mars Polar Lander.

Further analysis of data taken by radio telescopes in the
Netherlands, Italy and at Stanford on Feb. 8 has not yielded any
signal from Mars Polar Lander.

Extensive analysis of all data taken during the last few
weeks is ongoing.

“We saw something in the Jan. 4 data that had all the
earmarks of a signal and we felt we had to check it out. In
parallel, we started to perform analysis to determine if the
signal came from Mars,” said Richard Cook, project manager for
Mars Polar Lander at JPL. “Based on the latest results, it is
unlikely that we will attempt to listen again.”

Mars Polar Lander is managed by the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory for NASA’s Office of Space Science, Washington, D.C.
Lockheed Martin Astronautics Inc., Denver, Colo., is the agency’s
industrial partner for development and operation of the
spacecraft. JPL is a division of the California Institute of
Technology, Pasadena, Calif.

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