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New Mars probe to launch Saturday

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A drawing of NASA's Mars Odyssey Orbiter  

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Joining another satellite

Reeling from 1999 losses

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(CNN) -- Another chapter in NASA's odyssey to the red planet is about to unfold.

A probe named 2001 Mars Odyssey is scheduled to liftoff Saturday. It's NASA's first mission to Mars since two disastrous failures in 1999.

Mars Odyssey will search for water, map surface minerals and measure radiation levels -- observations that could provide clues about possible extraterrestrial life and prove instrumental for future human explorers.

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Meteorologists on Friday predicted fair skies for the launch. But the sun, which has become extremely active in recent weeks, must cooperate too. Scientists will keep an eye out for solar storms, which can disrupt electrical systems on the ground and in space.

The spacecraft is slated to blast off aboard a Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, just after 11 a.m. EDT on Saturday. The $300 million orbiter should reach Mars in October after a journey of 286 million miles (460 million km).

Joining another satellite

Odyssey will join another NASA satellite already orbiting the red planet. Mars Global Surveyor has been circling Mars since 1997, snapping hundreds of thousands of high-resolution pictures.

Surveyor's camera can spot details as small as 3 meters. The camera onboard Odyssey cannot focus as well, but it will have the ability to "see" much more than physical topography.

The new orbiter is equipped with an infrared imaging camera that can distinguish the mineral content of geologic features only 100 meters (110 yards) across, compared to 3 km (1.9 miles) for a similar instrument on the Mars Global Surveyor.

It also has a gamma ray spectrometer, which can peer into the shallow subsurface of Mars to measure elements, including hydrogen. Because hydrogen is probably present in the form of water ice, the spectrometer is expected to measure permanent ground ice and how it changes with the seasons, NASA said.

Odyssey will help identify favorable landing spots for twin rovers that NASA plans to launch in 2003. It will also relay radio communications between Earth and the rovers and later spacecraft.

Reeling from 1999 losses

The mission is the first since NASA revamped its Mars program, which suffered the disastrous losses of an orbiter and lander less than three years ago.

In September 1999, the Mars Climate Orbiter presumably burned up in the Martian atmosphere because propulsion engineers failed to convert English and metric units.

Three months later, its sibling spacecraft the Mars Polar Lander likely crashed because a software glitch shut off the descent engines prematurely, sending it on a fatal plunge into the red planet.

NASA revised its Mars program after the mishaps, canceling numerous missions over the next decade. Those that survived were given much higher budgets and subjected to more critical review.

NASA has no firm plans for a human mission to Mars. But one onboard experiment will monitor martian radiation levels, checking possible hazards for future colonists.



RELATED STORIES:
Red planet water wars waged before Mars odyssey
April 4, 2001
NASA 'skeptical' images show Mars Polar Lander
March 22, 2001
NASA poised for 2001 Mars Odyssey
March 19, 2001
Report: Mars volcanoes possibly still active
March 14, 2001
Search for the lost Mars Polar Lander -- in 3-D
October 17, 2000
Mars Express, other probes to expand search for water
June 26, 2000

RELATED SITES:
2001 Mars Odyssey
Mars Global Surveyor
NASA

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