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Mars Polar Lander / Deep Space 2

Mars Polar Lander was designed to study climate and subsurface ice near Mars' south polar cap, while the two piggyback Deep Space 2 microprobes were intended to impact nearby and test miniature penetrator technologies. All three flight elements shared a cruise stage but separated for independent arrivals.

Mars Polar Lander / Deep Space 2
NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory-Caltech · Stored JPEG is a re-encoded rendition of the NASA Science Mars Polar Lander / Deep Space 2 mission-page image; decoded pixels match the authoritative 768x554 NASA rendition (mean absolute pixel difference 1.84; per-channel correlation >= 0.998). The authoritative page identifies this as an illustration of NASA's Mars Polar Lander and credits NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory-Caltech: https://science.nasa.gov/mission/mars-polar-lander-deep-space-2/. NASA's current Images and Media Usage Guidelines generally allow NASA content for factual, educational, and informational web use with acknowledgement; commercial use must not imply NASA endorsement, and separately identified third-party material, NASA logos, and identifiers remain subject to separate restrictions: https://www.nasa.gov/nasa-brand-center/images-and-media/. This is an asset-level provenance and conservative reuse statement, not a blanket license. · Source
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Identity

Aliases
MPL / DS2Mars Surveyor '98 LanderDeep Space 2
Name
Mars Polar Lander / Deep Space 2
Status
failed

Details

Astronauts
-
Description
Mars Polar Lander was designed to study climate and subsurface ice near Mars' south polar cap, while the two piggyback Deep Space 2 microprobes were intended to impact nearby and test miniature penetrator technologies. All three flight elements shared a cruise stage but separated for independent arrivals.
Destination
Intended Mars south-polar landing; Mars Polar Lander would dig for water ice and Deep Space 2 would deploy impact probes, but both were lost on arrival
End Date
1999-12-03
Launch Site
Outcome
No signal was received from Mars Polar Lander or either Deep Space 2 probe after arrival. The lander investigation identified premature engine shutdown triggered by a likely false touchdown indication as the leading explanation; the probes' individual failure causes could not be determined.
Programs
Start Date
1999-01-03
Vehicle Families

Links

Official Url
https://science.nasa.gov/mission/mars-polar-lander-deep-space-2/

Assets & Meta

Creation Time
July 18, 2026 at 14:05:15 UTC
Updated Time
August 21, 2026 at 15:02:03 UTC
Image
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Affiliations
Search Name
Mars Polar Lander / Deep Space 2 MPL / DS2 Mars Surveyor '98 Lander Deep Space 2
Space Stations
-
Vehicles