MARS OBSERVER MISSION PLAN

Plans are described for operating the Mars Observer mission. These have been developed to help reverse the trend toward increasing complexity in operating interplanetary spacecraft. The normal data return strategy uses continuously recorded data with a single daily playback through the Deep Space Network. Although the mission has been planned with constrained data return strategies and modest data rates, it will still provide, both in temporal and spatial coverage and resolution, the most comprehensive study of an extraterrestrial planet to date.