Mars Global Surveyor Lecture on Oct 16

[Ron Baalke <BAALKE@kelvin.jpl.nasa.gov>]

PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109. TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov 

Contact: Stephanie R. Zeluck

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                       October 6, 1997

MARS GLOBAL SURVEYOR'S PROGRESS TO BE EXPLORED IN JPL EVENING 
TALK

     "Orbiting the Red Planet: News from the Mars Global Surveyor 
Mission" will be the theme for a free public lecture at 7 p.m. 
PDT Thursday, October 16, in JPL's von Karman Auditorium.  
Seating is limited and will be on a first come, first-served 
basis. 

     Presenting the lecture will be Glenn E. Cunningham, project 
manager of the Mars Global Surveyor mission. Cunningham joined 
JPL in 1966 as an engineer in the Spacecraft System Design and 
Integration Section. Since then he has worked on a number of 
spacecraft missions, including the 1969 Mariner Mars mission, the 
Voyager mission to the outer planets and the Mars Observer 
mission. 

     On September 11, Mars Global Surveyor entered orbit around 
Mars, beginning the initial phase of using the planet's 
atmosphere to slow down into a near-circular mapping orbit, a 
technique called aerobraking. When the spacecraft reaches its 
final orbit configuration in March 1998, it will conduct a 
comprehensive mapping of the red planet over a full Martian year.

     Within a week of its capture in orbit around Mars, 
instruments onboard the spacecraft detected the presence of a 
weak magnetic field around Mars. Further investigations have 
shown that Mars' magnetic field is not global, but localized in 
particular areas of the planet's crust, which is unlike the 
magnetic fields of other planets such as Earth, Jupiter and 
Saturn. The existence of these magnetic anomalies indicates that 
Mars once had a liquid core able to support an internal energy 
source, or dynamo, that froze and solidified early in the 
planet's evolution.

     This lecture is part of the von Karman Lecture Series held 
monthly by the JPL Public Information Office. A web site on the 
lecture series is located at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/lecture. For 
directions and other information, call the Public Information 
Office at (818) 354-5011. 

                             #####

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