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Mars Global Surveyor
CompletedNASA
Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Corby Waste · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
- Launched
- 7 Nov 199617:00:49 UTC
- Last contact
- 5 Nov 2006
- Duration
- 9 years 11 months
A NASA orbiter that mapped Mars for nine years, charting its topography and magnetic field and finding gullies that suggested recent liquid water.
Milestones
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Launch7 Nov 1996Enters orbit around Mars11 Sept 1997Mapping begins1 Apr 1999Last contact5 Nov 2006
Spacecraft
Orbiter carrying a camera, a laser altimeter, a thermal spectrometer and a magnetometer, built largely from spares of the lost Mars Observer.
- Launch mass
- 1,062 kg
- Dry mass
- 674 kg
- Size
- 3 m × 1.5 m, span 12 m
- Power
- Solar
- Last contact
- 5 Nov 2006
- Designator
- 1996-062A
Mission details from science.nasa.gov.
