NASA JPL - Mars Observer: Mars Mapper User Guide: Version 1

NASA JPL - Mars Observer: Mars Mapper User Guide: Version 1

• Published September 1992 by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), Pasadena, California, USA
• JPL D10362
• 642-3505-MAP-E
• Authors: Martin Lo, Min-Kun Chung, and Erin Defosse
• Condition: Used but in fairly good shape for a report of this age – see images enclosed. Two faint letters on top right of front cover.
• Size: 28.2cm tall x 22cm wide x 4.5mm thick
• Weight: 210g
• Cover is yellow, all interior pages are monochrome.
• Mars Observer was a NASA mission launched to Mars to map the surface. It was intended to go into orbit in Aug 1993, but just 3 days prior to orbit insertion it was deduced that there was a malfunction in a valve to the fuel which in turn probably caused a pressure build up and a subsequent explosion. Only 2 long distance images of Mars were ever returned by this $813 Million spacecraft, that’s about $406 Million per image! Anyway, a great deal of preparation went into developing mapping software for the mission and this handbook describes the Mars Mapper user interface. Fortunately, a lot of the software developed for Mars Observer and engineering techniques were successfully used in subsequent NASA space missions to Mars and lessons from the Mars Observer failure learnt. Space Exploration is a tough business! Although not an exciting bedtime read, this report may be of interest to computer scientists, cartographers, amateur space enthusiasts, space collectors/historians. Note no computer program code is included, just instructions, examples of user interfaces, and parameters and keywords.
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• For returns buyers are responsible for paying the costs of repackaging and postage

Enjoy!