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The Planetary Society Blog

By Emily Lakdawalla

Ten years in space for Mars Global Surveyor

Nov. 7, 2006 | 18:08 PST | Nov. 8 02:08 UTC

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Ten years ago today, Mars Global Surveyor lifted off from Kennedy Space Center. Many spacecraft have spent ten years in space, but Mars Global Surveyor has actually been working at Mars for more than nine of those ten years. That's pretty impressive. There's currently no reason to doubt that Mars Global Surveyor will last until September 12 next year, when it'll be able to celebrate ten years at Mars.

As far as I'm concerned, though, it doesn't make that much sense to celebrate milestones in Earth years for a spacecraft operating at a different planet. Intead, I think we should celebrate when Mars Global Surveyor has lasted five Mars years at Mars, a milestone it'll reach, by my calculations, on February 7, 2007.

You can learn about Mars' calendar here; if you want a handy tool for finding out the local time on Mars, I recommend the Mars24 applet at NASA Goddard.

Click to enlarge >

Mars Global Surveyor launch
Mars Global Surveyor launched on November 7, 1996 aboard a Delta II rocket from Kennedy Space Center. Credit: NASA / KSC

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