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Mission record

Deep Space 2

Also known as DS2, Deep Space 2 Mars Microprobes

NASA-Office of Space Science · Launched

Explore trajectory

Lost · Failure

A pair of small probes, the Deep Space 2 Mars Microprobes, attached to the Mars Polar Lander spacecraft and to be deployed to fall and penetrate beneath the martian surface when the spacecraft reached Mars. NSSDCA gives Deep Space 2 an entry of its own while describing it as a penetrator mission flying aboard the Mars Polar Lander, and NSSDCA's chronology of Mars exploration classifies it Attempted Mars Penetrators. The two 3.5 kg microprobes were to be dropped from the cruise stage into the martian atmosphere about 18 seconds after the cruise stage was jettisoned, targeted at the southern polar layered terrain; because contact with Mars Polar Lander was lost before atmospheric entry, it is not known whether any of that took place as designed.

Destinations
Launch vehicle
Delta II 7425
Launch site
Cape Canaveral, United States
Countries
United States
Mission types
Impactor

Chronology

Mission timeline

  1. Launch

    Launched attached to Mars Polar Lander

    Mars Polar Lander and the attached Deep Space 2 probes were launched on a Delta 7425 (a Delta II Lite launch vehicle with four strap-on solid-rocket boosters and a Star 48 (PAM-D) third stage) which placed them into a low-Earth parking orbit. The launch date and time are taken from the Mars Polar Lander launch/orbital information page, 1999-01-03T20:21:10Z, because the two spacecraft flew on one launch and NSSDCA's chronology gives them the same date.

    Earth

  2. Loss of contact

    Release from the cruise stage never confirmed

    The Star 48 upper cruise stage was to be jettisoned at about 20:05 UT, and about 18 seconds later the microprobes were to be dropped from the cruise stage into the martian atmosphere, also targeted at the southern polar layered terrain. Due to lack of communication, it is not known at this time whether all these steps following final contact were executed. No date for the microprobes' own arrival is published on any page cited here, so this event carries the date the parent spacecraft's last telemetry was sent.

    Mars

Mission architecture

Vehicles

  • Deep Space 2 microprobe 1 · Probe

    Destinations: Mars

  • Deep Space 2 microprobe 2 · Probe

    Destinations: Mars

Trajectory record

Trajectory dataset not yet available

No verified trajectory dataset is committed for this mission, so Mission Atlas renders no path.

Provenance

Sources

Each source is listed once and labeled with the mission, event, trajectory, or destination/body context it supports.

Data verified through September 2, 2026