QUESTION:
Did you adjust for atmospheric and/or gravitational differences between
Earth and Mars when designing the Mars Pathfinder probe? If you had to
adjust, how did you get accurate test results by testing on Earth?

ANSWER from Guy Beutelschies on July 14, 1997:
We did have to take into account the different atmospheric pressure (less
than 1% of Earth's) and gravity (roughly 1/3 of Earth's) in our design. The
different pressure was a key design parameter in our Aeroshell design. The
gravity was important in our Navigation analysis.  This did make it
difficult to test on Earth so we had to rely on analysis and computer
simulations for certain parts of our test program.

Guy Beutelschies 	Mars Pathfinder Flight Engineer