And the Weather Forecast for Mars Is... Mars Surveyor 98 Represents Motorola's Sixth Mission to Mars.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 5, 1999--On Jan. 3, atop a Boeing Delta II rocket at Cape Canaveral Air Station, the Mars Polar Lander of NASA's Mars Surveyor 98 mission launched, sending the Lander on its way to the red planet.

On board both the Lander and the Mars Climate Orbiter (which launched on Dec. 11) is the critical communications link to the mission - advanced radio frequency equipment designed and developed by Motorola's Systems Solutions Group (SSG) in Scottsdale.

The Orbiter and Lander are each carrying a pair of Motorola tracking, telemetry, and control (TT&C) X-Band deep space transponders which provide the only data link between the spacecraft and NASA's Deep Space Network. These transponders not only allow NASA to locate and command the spacecraft, but also to transmit all of its science and engineering data, including any visuals images, back to Earth.

The units are similar to those which were aboard spacecraft for the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) mission, Mars Pathfinder, and the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn.

A propulsive maneuver, called the Mars Orbit Insertion (MOI), will occur in September 1999 and will place the Orbiter in a highly elliptical, near-polar orbit around Mars in order to seek clues to the history of climate change on mars, map the planet's surface, profile the structure of the atmosphere, detect surface ice reservoirs, and dig for traces of water beneath Mars' rusty surface.

The Lander is aimed toward a target sector within the edge of the layered terrain near Mars' south pole, to arrive in December 1999. Like Mars Pathfinder, the Lander will dive directly into the Martian atmosphere. After the heat shield is jettisoned, a camera will take a series of pictures of the landing site as the spacecraft descends--all transmitted back to Earth via Motorola's transponders.

According to Rose Gibson, vice president and manager of Motorola's Space Systems and Services Division's Communications Solutions Business Unit, "This year Motorola is proud to celebrate its 40th anniversary of supplying space-based communications equipment to NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

"We are excited to be a contributor to the vast amount of knowledge of our universe that is being gained by the legacy of these scientific missions."

Including the Mariner mission to Mars in 1965, Motorola's communications equipment has been a major contributor to six missions to Mars.

Motorola has also developed a more advanced transponder with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, called the Small Deep Space Transponder (SDST), that is lighter and more compact to help NASA meet its needs for smaller and less expensive spacecraft.

This new design, able to use both X-Band and Ka-Band radio frequencies, is currently on the Deep Space 1 spacecraft of NASA's New Millennium Program and is scheduled for deployment on several deep space missions in the future including the Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF) and Mars Surveyor 2001.

Motorola is a global leader in advanced electronic systems and services. It liberates the power of technology by creating software-enhanced products that provide integrated customer solutions and Internet access via wireless and satellite communications, as well as computing, networking, and automotive electronics.

Motorola also provides essential digital building blocks in the form of embedded semiconductors, controls and systems. Sales in 1997 were $29.8 billion.