On This Day In History - 3rd January

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY - 3rd JANUARY

 

On This Day, 3rd of January, 1999, the Mars Polar Lander, also known as Mars Surveryor '98 Lander, or simply as Uncle Tony to the aliens it encountered, was launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

 

It was sent to study the soil and climate near the South Pole on Mars. As it entered the Martian atmosphere, communications were interrupted and never re-established. The Lander was lost. Aliens discovered it a few months later and now use it a paper-weight.

 

In a post-mortem analysis, NASA discovered, much to the embarrassment of the Mars Polar Lander itself, and all the men in the room, who understood such problems, it had suffered with premature termination of the engine firing prior to it touching the surface. A problem all men have had at some point in their lives.

 

"But you didn't even touch the surface."

"Yeah, sorry, that's never happened before."