Screaming Penguin - Source Does Matter

The JPL has reported that an errant course ajustment on Sept 15 may have seen the MCO crashing into Mars earlier today. On final approach at 5:01 AM EDT this morning the MCO was supposed to swing around Mars, using the edge of the atmosphere to break its velocity-- its closest approach at 60 miles, stablize at a 226 mile orbit, and emerge from the other side of the planet talking to ground control. Unfortunately, the mechanized voice never called from the heavens.JPL says they knew the craft was coming in shallow, but it was not possible to tell how low until it got close to Mars, unfortuantely it appears that was too late. The mission control radio receivers are being re-tasked to search for the craft, which may be off course but recoverable.The just over half a ton spacecraft was actually 3 units. A lander, about the size of a pickup truck bed, an orbiter, and 2 projectile units. The lander, aside from being the first space probe with a microphone, was to collect drilled soil samples for gas spetrometry. They orbiter was to collect weather data via two advanced cameras, and the projectiles were to fire deep into the Martian soil to collect information about underground water deposits.Even if the space craft is lost, it is not anywhere near the blow NASA took when the Mars Observer failed in 1992 with a huge price tag. The MCO and the Polar Lander had a combined price of $300 million. No small change, but part of NASAs strategy to send fleets of lesser expesive craft instead of massive ones, like the $2 billion Viking probes.