From Earth orbit, Planet-B made two trips around the Moon to establish its final trajectory to Mars. The spacecraft is scheduled to reach Mars Oct. 11, 1999. The probe carried fourteen instruments designed by specialists in Japan, Germany, Canada, Sweden and the United States to study the Martian interior, surface and atmosphere. Planet-B will arrive in orbit around Mars in October 1999. Its science instruments will begin sending back information on the Red Planet's magnetic field while looking for so-called water signature signs of water on or below the surface.
Features seen on the planet surface suggest to scientists that water existed on Mars in the past.
NASA is the U.S. space agency. NASA also supplied the Ultra Stable Oscillator, a radio science experiment. The Neutral Mass Spectrometer enables researchers to measure the chemical composition of the upper atmosphere of Mars on a global scale. That has not been done before. The radio science hardware generates ultra-precise signals.