34. Mars Global Surveyor
Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) was the first in the Mars Surveyor series of spacecraft missions to Mars to be launched at each opportunity (every 26 months when the position of the two planets makes for optimum travel time) over the next decade. MGS was launched from Kennedy Space Center at noon on November 7, 1996, and left Earth orbit toward Mars about 45 minutes later. It arrived at Mars on September 12, 1997. This painting shows MGS arriving at Mars and slowing itself down by friction with the martian atmosphere (a maneuver called aerobraking).
MGS carried duplicates of seven instruments that were on the Mars Observer spacecraft, which was lost at Mars in 1993. The MGS instruments were the Mars Orbital Camera (MOC) to provide high-resolution images of the surface; the Mars Orbital Laser Altimeter (MOLA) to measure elevations; the Thermal Emission Spectrometer (TES) to measure the composition and distribution of surface minerals, rocks, and ices; a Radio Science Investigation that will map Mars’ gravity field, and, from that, its internal structure; a magnetometer to determine whether Mars currently has a magnetic field; an Electron Reflectometer to study how the solar wind touches Mars; and the Mars Relay Radio System to relay telemetry from future Mars landers.