Mars Scout Program

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The Mars Scout Program is a NASA program to send a series of small, low-cost missions to Mars, competitively selected from innovative proposals by the scientific community. The first robotic spacecraft in this program is Phoenix, a lander originally intended for the cancelled Mars Surveyor mission. Phoenix was launched on August 4, 2007, and landed in the icy northern polar region of the planet on May 25, 2008.

Originally planned for launch in 2011, the second scout mission is now targeted for launch in 2013 due to an organizational conflict of interest that was discovered in one of the mission proposal team's Phase A Concept Study.

This third installment of the Mars Scout Missions is tentatively scheduled for 2018.

The second set of Scout missions are under review and projected to launch in 2013.[1]

[edit] References

  1. ^ . NASA (2007). NASA Delays Mars Scout Mission to 2013. NASA. Retrieved on December 21, 2007.

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