Nasa has reacted angrily to the allegation that it knew the Mars Polar Lander (MPL) mission would fail because of a design flaw in the craft's braking thrusters.

It was claimed that the system used to ignite MPL's hydrazine fuel could not have coped in the extreme cold of space and that the engines were only installed in the spacecraft after an unnamed individual had falsified test data.

It was said that Nasa officials hid the facts from the public when they discovered what had happened in the tests.

Contact was lost with MPL on 3 December when it turned to enter the Martian atmosphere. Two microprobes were also lost in the descent.

But the space agency utterly rejected the claims, which had been circulating as rumours before appearing in wire reports on Tuesday.

Full Story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_687000/687283.stm

Mitch Battros
Producer - Earth Changes TV
http://www.earthchangesTV.com