Nov 15 1999
From The Space Library
NASA announced the winner of an essay contest to name the Deep Space 2 microprobes, which the Mars Polar Lander spacecraft was carrying to Mars. NASA had scheduled the two probes to crash into Mars's south pole on 3 December. Paul Withers, a graduate student at the University of Arizona in Tucson, studying the thin upper atmosphere of Mars, had suggested naming the pair Amundsen and Scott, in honor of Roald Amundsen and Robert F. Scott, the first explorers to reach Earth's South Pole. In his winning essay, Withers recalled that one century ago, Antarctica was Earth's only unexplored continent. Withers wrote, "Scott perished in Antarctica. His memorial's inscription reads: `To strive, to seek, to find, not to yield.' These are the aims of the Deep Space 2." NASA had designed the two probes with a dual purpose: to test advanced technology for future planetary-surface microlanders and to search for water ice 3 feet (0.9 meters) below the Martian surface. Deep Space 2 Project Manager Sarah A. Gavit remarked that the names of the Antarctic explorers were appropriate for the probes, because "like Amundsen and Scott, Deep Space 2 will have to survive great odds, including not only braving the elements but also crashing into the terrain with unbelievable force.”
The main engine of Japan's H-2 rocket malfunctioned 4 minutes after launching from Tanegashima Space Center, failing to put the Mtsat satellite into orbit. Fearing they could lose control of its trajectory, officials ordered the rocket's destruction 8 minutes into its flight, marking the first time the [[National Space Development Agency of Japan]] had destroyed a rocket in flight. It was the second launch failure for the H-2 rocket during 1999; another H-2 had failed to place its payload in orbit in February. However, before the February malfunction, Japan had launched five H-2 rockets successfully. The Misat satellite, intended to replace the Himawari S satellite, would have observed weather patterns and monitored aircraft .
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