... The mission will consist of a stationary lander and a surface rover. The mission has the primary objective of demonstrating the feasibility of low-cost landings on and exploration of the Martian surface. ... The spacecraft will be launched in December 1996 for an arrival on Mars in July 1997. The scientific objectives include atmospheric entry science, long-range and close-up surface imaging, with the general objective being to characterize the Martian environment for further exploration. ...

Lidar experiment cover story . ... Delta-2 launching vehicle delivered on a flight trajectory to the Mars the Polar Lander spacecraft. ... The main scientific goals are: Martian surface research, especially its light fractures and atmosphere research. ... The atmospheric sounding instrument aboard Mars Polar Lander is the LIDAR - Light Detection and Ranging, developed by team of Space Research Institute, RAS. The LIDAR system is a laser sounder located on the Mars Polar Lander deck. ...

... Max-Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Katlenburg-Lindau , Germany ; Институт космических исследований . ... In particular, a systematic and long-term survey of the atmosphere was missing, and most aspects of atmospheric behaviour remained puzzling. After the Magellan radar mapping mission ended in 1994, there followed a hiatus of more than a decade in Venus research, until the European Space Agency (ESA) took up the challenge and sent its own spacecraft to our planetary neighbour . ...

Cosmic Research, Vol. 42, No. 5, 2004, pp. 435­488. Translated from Kosmicheskie Issledovaniya, Vol. 42, No. 5, 2004, pp. 453­508. Original Russian Text Copyright © 2004 by Veselovsky, Panasyuk, Avdyushin, Bazilevskaya, Belov, Bogachev, Bogod, Bogomolov, Bothmer, Boyarchuk, Vashenyuk, Vlasov, Gnezdilov, Gorgutsa, Grechnev, Denisov, Dmitriev, Dryer, Yermolaev, Eroshenko, Zherebtsov, Zhitnik, Zhukov, Zastenker, Zelenyi, Zeldovich, Ivanov-Kholodnyi, Ignat'ev, Ishkov, Kolomiytsev, Krasheninnikov, Kudela,