National Aeronautics and Space Administration
John F. Kennedy Space Center
Kennedy Space Center, Florida 32899
407/867-7819 

FOR RELEASE: November 12, 1998 

PHOTO NO.: KSC-98PC-1644

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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLA. -- In the Spacecraft Assembly and 
Encapsulation Facility -2 (SAEF-2), two JPL workers measure a 
Mars microprobe. Two microprobes will hitchhike on the Mars Polar 
Lander, scheduled to be launched Jan. 3, 1999, aboard a Delta II 
rocket. The solar-powered spacecraft is designed to touch down on 
the Martian surface near the northern-most boundary of the south 
pole in order to study the water cycle there. The lander also 
will help scientists learn more about climate change and current 
resources on Mars, studying such things as frost, dust, water 
vapor and condensates in the Martian atmosphere. The Mars 
microprobes, called Deep Space 2, are part of NASA's New 
Millennium Program. They will complement the climate-related 
scientific focus of the lander by demonstrating an advanced, 
rugged microlaser system for detecting subsurface water. Such 
data on polar subsurface water, in the form of ice, should help 
put limits on scientific projections for the global abundance of 
water on Mars.