Donald L. Savage
Headquarters, Washington, D.C.                                                          
April 2, 1992
(Phone:  202/453-8400)


Release:  92-45

NASA SELECTS Participating ScientistS for Mars Observer mission


     NASA has announced the selection of 33 participating 
scientists to take part in a wide range of investigations on the 
Mars Observer mission, planned for launch Sept. 16, 1992.  These 
scientists will be added to the current science teams in October 
1992 to increase the range of studies planned for the 2-year 
global mapping mission.  Team leaders and interdisciplinary 
scientists were selected for Mars Observer in 1986.

      "We are very glad to be able to provide this new scientific 
talent to the Mars Observer mission," said Dr. Wesley T. Huntress, 
Jr., Director of NASA's Solar System Exploration Division.  "Mars 
Observer is the most complex mission we have ever flown to Mars, 
and it has a huge task to raise our understanding of Mars to a new 
level by obtaining long-term orbital data about the whole planet."

      Mars Observer, America's first mission to Mars in more than 
15 years, will be launched from the Kennedy Space Center, Fla., by 
a Titan-III expendable launch vehicle built by Martin Marietta 
Corp.  The spacecraft itself will ride on the new Transfer Orbit 
Stage built by Orbital Sciences Corp., which will send the 
spacecraft out of Earth orbit on its way to Mars.

      In August 1993, after an 11-month interplanetary cruise, the 
spacecraft will reach Mars where it will fire its on-board engines 
and enter a nearly polar orbit at an altitude of 240 miles.  The 
spacecraft's seven instruments will record the global 
characteristics of Mars for slightly more than a full martian year 
(687 Earth days) to watch a full cycle of changes in the martian 
seasons.  By early 1996, the spacecraft will have returned to 
Earth more than 600 billion bits of scientific data, more than has 
been collected by the nearly two dozen previous missions flown to 
Mars by the U.S. and the former U.S.S.R.

      Besides representing U.S. universities and research centers, 
the newly-selected group of participating scientists include 4 
individuals from the United Kingdom, France and Germany.  Six 
scientists from Austria, the United Kingdom, France and Germany 
are already involved in the mission and a group of 10 
participating scientists from Russia will be added later this 
year.
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      Some of the 33 participating scientists will work with one 
of the seven instrument-related science teams.  The instruments 
carried by Mars Observer are a gamma-ray detector to measure the 
chemical composition of the surface; a laser altimeter to measure 
the shape and topography of the surface; an infrared detector to 
measure surface mineral composition; a different infrared detector 
to measure the composition and behavior of the martian atmosphere; 
a magnetometer to measure the planet's magnetic field; and a 
camera to photograph the landscape at resolutions ranging from a 
few kilometers to several meters.  In addition, careful tracking 
of the spacecraft's radio signal will make it possible to map the 
gravity field of Mars and some features of its atmospheric 
structure.

      Other participating scientists will work with one of six 
interdisciplinary science teams, which will combine data collected 
by several different instruments to probe general questions of 
Mars' geology, atmospheric behavior, surface weathering, the 
influence of the polar caps and the migration of water and carbon 
dioxide between the atmosphere, the polar caps and the martian 
surface layer.

      The wide range of Mars Observer science investigations will 
focus on solving several mysteries which were revealed but not 
settled by earlier U.S. missions to Mars, such as whether or not 
Mars has a magnetic field, where the water has gone and 
determining the mineral and chemical composition of martian soil 
and bedrock.  The information gathered on the planet's 
gravitational field, atmospheric structure and surface topography 
and properties will be crucial to future human exploration of 
Mars.

      "Mars Observer's mission is to make the first-ever global 
scientific inventory of an entire planet," said Dr. Bevan M. 
French, NASA's Program Scientist for the mission.  "Mars is a 
complex world.  Parts of it are like the Moon, with ancient rocks 
that preserve a record of intense meteorite bombardment during the 
early years of the solar system.  Other parts of Mars are younger 
and more dynamic, like the Earth.  These places have volcanoes, 
great fractures in the crust and large channels cut by running 
water a billion or two years ago."

      "Mars also has polar ice caps, an atmosphere, clouds, frost, 
wind and sand dunes," he continued.  "We want to understand how 
Mars formed and changed over time, why parts of it are similar to 
Earth and why other parts are utterly different."

      Mars Observer also will support data collection by the 
Russian Mars-94 mission, which is planned to arrive at Mars in 
late 1995 and land small stations on the planet's surface.  A 
communications relay on the Mars Observer spacecraft will relay 
data from the surface stations to Earth.  Depending on the 
lifetime of the spacecraft, the same relay might be available 
later to send back data collected from Mars-96, a subsequent 
Russian mission that also will launch balloons into the martian 
atmosphere.

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     Some of the Mars Observer's participating scientist 
investigations will look beyond Mars and even beyond the solar 
system.  These include studies to detect and make high-resolution 
measurements of the mysterious gamma-ray "burster" events, studies 
of gamma-rays produced by violent high-energy flares on the Sun, 
and the first deep-space search for gravity waves using the 
extraordinarily precise tracking data from the Mars Observer 
communication system.  Gravity waves are a fundamental phenomenon 
predicted by Einstein's Theory of Relativity but have yet to be 
detected.

     NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., manages 
the Mars Observer project for the Office of Space Science and 
Applications at NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C.


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Editor's Note:  A list of the newly-selected participating 
scientists assigned to the seven instrument-related science teams 
and to the six interdisciplinary science teams is available by 
calling 202/453-8400.
                     MARS OBSERVER PARTICIPATING SCIENTISTS
                                (Listed by Team Membership)
 
(NOTE:  Only Participating Scientists were selected at this time.  
Team Leaders
and Interdisciplinary Scientists were selected for Mars Observer 
in 1986.)
 
 
1.  INSTRUMENT-RELATED TEAMS
 
 
TEAM:     Gamma-Ray Spectrometer (GRS)
 
     BRUCKNER, Johannes  (Max Planck Institute, GERMANY)
          "Experimental and theoretical simulations of the 
gamma-ray
          emission of Mars:  implications for the chemical 
analysis of its
          surface"
 
     DRAKE, Darrell M.  (Los Alamos National Laboratory)
          "Study of martian volatiles via coupled 
neutron-gamma-ray fluxes"
 
     EVANS, Larry G.  (Computer Science Corporation)
          "Elemental composition and background determination for 
the Mars
          Observer Gamma-Ray Spectrometer"
 
     LAROS, John G.  (Los Alamos National Laboratory)
          "Gamma-ray burst studies using GRS"
 
     STARR, Richard D.  (Catholic University)
          "Analysis of X-ray and gamma-ray emissions from solar 
flares
          detected by the gamma-ray spectrometer"
 
 
 
TEAM:     Magnetometer/Electron Reflectometer (MAG/ER)
 
     MENVIELLE, M.  (University of Paris, FRANCE)
          "Study of the magnetic field of Mars with surface and 
satellite
          data"
 
     MOHLMANN, Diedrich  (German Aerospace Research Establishment 
(DLR),
           GERMANY)
          "Simultaneous and correlated magnetic measurements 
(SCMM)"
 
     SLAVIN, James A.  (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center)
          "An investigation of the Mars solar wind interaction and 
intrinsic
          magnetic field"
 
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TEAM:     Mars Observer (Science) Camera (MOC)
 
     DAVIES, Merton E.  (RAND Corporation)
          "The planetwide geodetic control network of Mars"
     
     HARTMANN, William K.  (Planetary Science Institute)
          "Nature and duration of martian climate changes, studied 
through
          martian craters and other geomorphic indicators"
 
     JAMES, Philip B.  (University of Toledo)
          "Behavior of clouds and polar condensates on Mars"
 
     McEWEN, Alfred S.  (U.S. Geological Survey)
          "Martian color and albedo variations"
 
     THOMAS, Peter C.    (RAND Corporation)
          "Eolian sediments, seasonal changes, and topography of 
Mars
          studied with the Mars Observer Camera"
 
 
 
TEAM:     Mars Observer Laser Altimeter (MOLA)
 
     BANERDT, W. Bruce  (Jet Propulsion Laboratory)
          "MOLA Participating Scientist:  geophysical modelling of 
Mars"
 
 
     DUXBURY, Thomas C.  (Jet Propulsion Laboratory)
          "MOC Geosciences:  geodesy, cartography, and topography"
 
 
 
TEAM:     Pressure Modulator Infrared Radiometer (PMIRR)
 
     ALLISON, Michael D.  (Goddard Institute for Space Sciences)
          "Martian general circulation statistics via the 
objective analysis
          of PMIRR data"
 
     BARNES, Jeffrey R.  (Oregon State University)
          "Extratropical eddies in the atmospheric circulation and 
climate
          system of Mars"
 
     MARTIN, Terry Z.  (Jet Propulsion Laboratory)
          "Atmospheric studies with the Mars Horizon Sensor 
Assembly"

      READ, Peter L.  (University of Oxford, ENGLAND)
          "Baroclinic wave dynamics and orographic influences in 
the
           martian atmosphere: model/data comparisons using PMIRR"
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TEAM:     Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES)
 
     CLANCY, R. Todd  (University of Colorado)
          "Visible dust and cloud opacities from Mars Observer"
 
     CONRATH, Barney J.  (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center)
          "Investigation of the structure and dynamics of the 
martian
          atmosphere using thermal emission spectra"
 
     ROUSCH, Ted L.  (San Francisco State University)
          "Collection, reduction, and interpretation of thermal 
emission
          spectrometer data and their relationship to 
volatile-bearing
          minerals on Mars"
 
 
 
TEAM:     Radio Science (RS)
 
     ARMSTRONG, John W.  (Jet Propulsion Laboratory)
          "A search for low-frequency gravitational radiation 
using the Mars
          Observer telecommunications system"
 
     FLASAR, F. Michael  (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center)
          "Meteorological studies of Mars from Radio Science 
observations"
 
     SIMPSON, Richard A.  (Stanford University)
          "Bistatic radar studies of Mars surface"
 

 
 
 2.  INTERDISCIPLINARY SCIENCE TEAMS:
 
 
TEAM:     Interdiscipolinary Scientist (Atmospheres/Climartology)
 
     HABERLE, Robert M.  (NASA Ames Research Center)
          "The role of atmospheric transport in the current 
seasonal water
          cycle on Mars"
 
TEAM:     Interdisciplinary Scientist (Data Management/Surface 
Weathering)
 
     FEGLEY, Bruce  (Washington University, St. Louis)
          "Constraints on martian chemical weathering from Mars 
Observer Data"

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TEAM:     Interdisciplinary Scientist (Geosciences)
 
     GOLUMBEK, Matthew  (Jet Propulsion Laboratory)
          "Structural geology of Mars"
 
     McSWEEN, Harry Y.  (University of Tennessee)
          "Petrologic map of bedrock for Mars Observer"
 

 
TEAM:     Interdisciplinary Scientist (Polar Atmospheric Sciences) 
 
     HOUBEN, Howard  (Space Physics Research Institute)
          "Meteorological analyses and short-term forecasting with 
Mars
          Observer data"
 
 
 
TEAM:     Interdisciplinary Scientist (Surface-Atmosphere 
Interactions)
 
     ZENT, Aaron P.  (SETI Institute)
          "Mars Observer surface-atmosphere interaction IDS 
Support"
 
  
 
TEAM:     Interdisciplinary Scientist (Surface Properties and 
Morphology)
 
     HERKENHOFF, Ken  (Jet Propulsion Laboratory)
          "Topography and composition of the polar layered 
deposits on Mars"
 
     MURRAY, Bruce C.  (California Institute of Technology)
          "Mars Observer participating scientist program"
 
 
 
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