How long is the IMP expected to “live” on Mars?
No one knows for certain how long the IMP will continue to function on Mars. The “primary mission,” that is, the mission that the IMP has been designed to complete will last 30 days. It is fairly reasonable to expect that the IMP will meet this primary mission goal, in which case the IMP will have had time to complete an entire panorama of the landing site using all of the filters. It is also quite possible that the IMP will live beyond the first thirty days — in fact, it could function several months. In the even that the IMP does live beyond the primary mission, it will be able to continue to take atmospheric data, observe wind and weather patterns, and observe the changes in the area occurring over time. The mission is funded through August of 1998, however, if the Pathfinder lander somehow continues to function beyond this time, it is likely that further funds will be allocated.
