NASA launched its 2001 Mars Odysseyprobe from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida today, sending it on a 460 million-kilometer (286 million mile) journey toward the Red Planet, which it is due to begin orbiting in October, NASA said.
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The Mars Odyssey
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The 725-kilogram (1,600-pound) probe, powered by a Delta II rocket, left Earth at just after 3 p.m.
"Everything is looking wonderful," a NASA commentator said as the rocket thundered into a cloudless sky over the southeastern United States.
If all goes well on its $400 million, three-year mission, the Odysseywill transmit information on the presence of water on Mars and the geological composition of its surface back home and help NASA plan future missions.
" Odysseywill help identify and ultimately target those places on Mars where future rovers and landers must visit to unravel the mysteries of the Red Planet," said Jim Garvin, lead scientist for NASA's Mars Exploration Program.
In addition to thermal mapping, Odysseywill act as a "virtual shovel" and dig into the planet's crust to analyze Mars's hydrogen content, to measure permanent ground ice and how it changes with the seasons.
Discovering hydrogen "hot spots," says Ed Weiler, who heads the space science office at NASA headquarters, could "indicate ice-saturated ground or even water leaking to the surface. Are there thermal hot spots that could indicate escaping gases or even water?"
"If there are such areas," he said, "these would be key spots to study for past or current biology with future Martian landers."
The Odysseywill also set up a communications relay for future Mars landers, including NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers. Scheduled for launch in 2003, the rovers have a longer range than the Sojourner rover deployed on the 1997 Pathfinder mission.
Named in tribute to science fiction author Arthur C Clarke the Mars Odysseyis but a small component of the extensive NASA program to observe the fourth planet from the sun, which hit a low point after the 1999 crashes of the Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander, lost due to human error.
AFP
