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Mars Observer (MO, aka Mars Geoscience/Climatology Orbiter) was a NASA spacecraft launched in 1992 intended to orbit Mars, which failed in 1993 with contact lost just before reaching its destination. Instruments:
An instrument analogous to each of these was later deployed in one of the subsequent NASA missions, Mars Global Surveyor, Mars Odyssey, or Mars Climate Orbiter. Mars Observer's MBR (Mars Balloon Relay) was a general communications relay to serve other Mars missions, its subsequent incarnation on Mars Global Surveyor termed just Mars Relay (MR). The instrument's Mars Observer name included the word balloon because one intended use was to assist communication with a French-developed Mars balloon-based probe that had been planned to be carried on two 1990s Russian Mars missions, Mars 94, which was canceled, and Mars 96, which failed.