Free Programs Will Preview Nasa's Next Mars Mission

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE (818) 354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Guy Webster (818) 354-6278
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

News Release: 2004-255 October 13, 2004

Free Programs Will Preview Nasa's Next Mars Mission

Two free public programs in Pasadena this week will introduce
NASA's next Mars mission, a multipurpose orbiter under assembly
for launch next August.

NASA is equipping the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to advance our
understanding of Mars through detailed observation, to examine
potential landing sites for future surface missions, and to
provide a high-data-rate communications relay for those
missions. Jim Graf, project manager for the orbiter, will
describe the project on Thursday evening, Oct. 14, at NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory. Dr. Richard Zurek, the project scientist,
will do so Friday evening, Oct. 15, at Pasadena City College.

"Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will be one of the most exciting
missions ever sent to Mars," Graf said. "It is a next-generation
orbiter that will work in conjunction with surface missions to
give us a new understanding of the processes shaping the
planet." The orbiter will carry the most powerful telescopic
camera ever flown to another planet, one that is able to show
martian landscape features as small as a kitchen table. That
camera and five other science instruments will pour data back to
Earth at about 10 times the rate of any previous Mars mission.

Graf has worked on space-related projects for nearly 30 years,
from development of ion thruster technology to management of the
Earth-orbiting Quick Scatterometer mission. He holds a
bachelor's degree from Princeton University, Princeton, N.J.,
and a master's from Colorado State University, Fort Collins,
Colo. NASA has awarded him its Outstanding Leadership Medal.
Zurek's bachelor's degree in mathematics is from Michigan State
University, East Lansing, Mich., and his doctorate in
atmospheric sciences is from the University of Washington,
Seattle.

The talks will be part of JPL's Theodore von Karman Lecture
Series. Both will begin at 7 p.m. Seating is first-come, first-
served. The Thursday lecture will be in JPL's von Karman
Auditorium. JPL is at 4800 Oak Grove Dr., off the Oak Grove
Drive exit of the 210 (Foothill) Freeway. The Friday lecture
will be in Pasadena City College's Vosloh Forum, 1570 E.
Colorado Blvd. For more information, call (818) 354-0112.
Thursday's lecture will be webcast live and available afterwards
at http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/events/lectures/oct04.cfm .

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