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Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Xxxxxxxxxxxx XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxooooooooooooooooooooooooo XXXXXXXXXXXXooooooooooooooooooxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx The written article below is from the Center for Planetary Science with the link to this article webpage at the bottom of this page. (photo of Tony is added) The Center for Planetary Science – Inspiring the Next Generation of Space Explorers – Mars Pathfinder Tony Spear Mars Pathfinder is an American spacecraft that landed a base station with a roving probe on Mars in 1997. It consisted of a lander, renamed the Carl Sagan Memorial Station, and a lightweight (10.6 kg/23 lb) wheeled robotic Mars rover named Sojourner. Launched on December 4, 1996 by NASA aboard a Delta II booster a month after the Mars Global Surveyor was launched, it landed on July 4, 1997 on Mars’s Ares Vallis, in a region called Chryse Planitia in the Oxia Palus quadrangle. The lander then opened, exposing the rover which conducted many experiments on the Martian surface. The mission carried a series of scientific instruments to analyze the Martian atmosphere, climate, geology and the composition of its rocks and soil. It was the second project from NASA’s Discovery Program, which promotes the use of low-cost spacecraft and frequent launches under the motto “cheaper, faster and better” promoted by the then administrator, Daniel Goldin. The mission was directed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a division of the California Institute of Technology, responsible for NASA’s Mars Exploration Program. The project manager was JPL’s Tony Spear. This mission was the first of a series of missions to Mars that included rovers, and was the first successful lander since the two Vikings landed on the red planet in 1976. Although the Soviet Union successfully sent rovers to the Moon as part of the Lunokhod program in the 1970s, its attempts to use rovers in its Mars probe program failed. In addition to scientific objectives, the Mars Pathfinder mission was also a “proof-of-concept” for various technologies, such as airbag-mediated touchdown and automated obstacle avoidance, both later exploited by the Mars Exploration Rover mission. The Mars Pathfinder was also remarkable for its extremely low cost relative to other unmanned space missions to Mars. Originally, the mission was conceived as the first of the Mars Environmental Survey (MESUR) program. https://planetary-science.org/mars-research/mars-landings/mars-pathfinder/ Anthony (Tony) Spear is an American space exploration project manager most notable for leading the Mars Pathfinder mission for JPL/NASA in 1996!! Article taken from JPL website. Link below: NEWS | JUNE 29, 1998 https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=5142 Former Mars Pathfinder Manager Tony Spear Retires from JPL Tony Spear, who oversaw NASA's Mars Pathfinder mission from its conception through successful landing on July 4, 1997, has Popular retired from JPL. Fueling of NASA's Mars 2020 Rover Power System Begins Spear, a 36-year veteran of the Laboratory, was instrumental in coordinating all facets of spacecraft development -- such as flight The Apollo Experiment That Keeps on Giving hardware, computer systems and new technologies -- to produce the innovative Pathfinder lander and the Sojourner rover -- the What Does a Marsquake Look Like? first robotic rover ever to explore another planet. Pathfinder was NASA Delivers Hardware for ESA Dark the first mission to land on Mars since the two Viking landers Energy Mission came to rest on the red planet in 1976. NASA Tracked Small Asteroid Before It After Pathfinder successfully touched down in an ancient outflow Broke Up in Atmosphere channel known as Ares Vallis, about 850 kilometers (525 miles) NASA Invites Public to Submit Names to southeast of the location of the Viking Lander 1, Spear stepped Fly Aboard Next Mars Rover down as project manager and joined the Advanced Deep Space System Development Program, called X2000, to develop advanced technologies for future exploration of the outer planets of the solar system. Brian Muirhead, who had served as the Mars Pathfinder spaceflight systems engineer, was named to succeed him. Before serving on the Pathfinder project, Spear led the initial studies for NASA's Discovery program of faster, better, cheaper missions. The Mars Pathfinder mission was the second in that series of fast-track, low-cost missions with highly focused science goals. Spear joined JPL in 1962 and worked on a variety of engineering positions over the years. He served as manager of the 1989 Magellan mission to map the surface of Venus, manager of the synthetic aperture imaging radar instruments that flew aboard several Space Shuttle missions in the early 1990s, and was an engineer on the 1978 Seasat oceanographic satellite mission. Prior to that, Spear worked from 1974-1975 as the Advanced Projects Planning manager for the NASA/JPL Deep Space Communications and Spacecraft Tracking Network. From 1962- 1974, he worked in the Deep Space Telecommunications System for the 1964 and 1969 Mariner missions to Mars and the 1973 Mariner mission to Venus and Mercury. He also participated in the design of the lander and orbiter relay communications link for the 1976 Viking mission to Mars. Spear received his bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering in 1962 from Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA and his master's degree in engineering from the University of Southern California. He earned a second master's degree in mechanical engineering in 1968 from UCLA. A native of Martins Ferry, Ohio, Spear served in the U.S. Air Force from 1954 to 1958, specializing in radio communications for jet fighters. Spear is a resident of Pasadena, CA and has two daughters. News Media Contact 818-354-5011 https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=5142 Site Manager: Jon Nelson Webmasters: Tony Greicius, Luis Espinoza, Anil Natha.
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