QUESTION:
Will MGS's solar panel problem change the data you get?  Can the mission
still accomplish its goals?

ANSWER from Charles Whetsel on November 30, 1997:
The damage to MGS's solar panel, which occured just after launch, is posing
a series of challenges to the aerobraking phase of the mission, but if we
proceed carefully, the mission should still be able to achieve all of it's
scientific goals.  The originally desired science orbit would have required
that aerobraking be completed by January of 1998, which required aerobraking
about 3 times faster than the panel will safely allow.  By aerobraking more
slowly, and taking a break over the summer of 1998, MGS should still be able
to get into the desired science orbit one-half of a Martian year later (or
one earth year, in early 1999) but it will orbit the planet from
south-to-north instead of north-to-south.  This will allow the mission to
achieve all of it's original goals, but it will be one earth-year later.