Public invited to join search for Mars Polar Lander.

New Scientist (5/12, Muir) reported, "Scientists have invited the public to trawl high-resolution images for signs of NASA's Mars Polar Lander, which went silent on arrival at Mars in 1999. Finding the wreckage might explain why the mission failed." Contact was lost as the probe landed and there has been no confirmation of its location so far. The HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) has taken high definition images of the probable crash area and "HiRISE software developer Guy McArthur...has invited the public to scan these images for signs of the Mars Polar Lander." A typical screen would require 1600 screenshots to view one image, and there are 18 images total to scan. Also, the landscape will make location difficult as it is "troublesomely speckled with bright and dark features roughly the same size as the spacecraft components."