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Mars Global Surveyor Update - April 4, 1998


                           Mars Global Surveyor 
                 Saturday Update on Targeted Observations

04-APR-98 10:00 AM PST

Mars Global Surveyor made its first attempt to target a specific location on
the surface of Mars yesterday and missed the target very slightly. The site
of the Viking Lander 1 was the first target in the up coming set of four
that will include Viking Lander 2, Mars Pathfinder and the Cydonia region.
Global Surveyor came rather close, but the landing site was about 150 meters
(500 feet) to the west of the edge of the long, narrow image that was to
contain it. The image was well centered in the north to south direction. The
width of the image was slightly greater than 5 km (3 miles). The flight team
will continue its analysis of the targeting performance.

The sequence of events for the imaging of Cydonia was loaded on board the
spacecraft yesterday afternoon. The detailed commands to control the imaging
will be loaded in about 2 hours after the latest orbit determination has
been completed.


04-APR-98 4:00 PM PST

The Mars Global Surveyor flight team and camera operators may have been
successful in placing the site of the Viking Lander 2 within the field of
view of the MGS Mars Orbiter Camera on the second of four attempts to image
sites of interest on the surface of Mars. Like the atmospheric conditions in
Pasadena, CA, today, Utopia Planitia, the location of the Viking Lander 2,
was heavily overcast when the image was recorded shortly in early afternoon,
Pacific time, yesterday. The Mars Orbiter Camera team reports that because
of the surface obscuration, the location of the image with respect to
surface features is problematic. It is believed, however, that the
Viking-era landing location and one of its more recently estimated locations
are within the lower portion of the image. Knowledge of the Viking Lander 2
site is the least well established of the targets that Global Surveyor is
attempting to photograph. Analysis of the results of these first images will
help the project team with the future imaging attempts.