Mars Lander and Descent Camera Lost

Project manager Richard Cook of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., said that the Mars Polar Lander flight team will continue trying to communicate with its lost space probe, including an over-flight of the landing site with the orbiting Mars Global Surveyor. However, he acknowledged that expectations were low.

The probe included the Mars Descent Imager, a camera system that was to have captured images of the planet at altitudes ranging from about 4 miles to 30 ft. The images would have been the first to chronicle a landing on another planet.