NASA Mars Polar Lander Artist Concept Artwork Skateboard

Artist depiction of the NASA Mars Polar Lander, also known as the Mars Surveyor '98 Lander, on the surface of Mars. The mission was part of NASA's Mars Surveyor program, a sustained program of robotic exploration of the red planet managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA's Office of Space Science. Launched on January 3, 1999 to study soil and climate near the south pole on Mars, however on December 3, 1999, after the descent phase was expected to be complete, the lander failed to reestablish communication with Earth.