The first of a pair of US robot Mars rovers blast off Tuesday
afternoon, embarking on a mission to search for proof of water and
life on the red planet.
The launch took place at 1:58 p.m. EDT (1758 GMT) in Cape
Canaveral, Florida, after bad weather has forced US space agency
NASA to postpone the liftoff for two consecutive days.
The robot rover, named Spirit by a 9-year-old girl in Arizona, the
United States, will arrive at Mars in January, 2004, and operate
for at least three months. Its identical twin, called Opportunity,
is scheduled to be launched on June 25.
"The instrumentation onboard these rovers, combined with their
great mobility, will offer a totally new view of Mars, including a
microscopic view inside rocks for the first time," Dr. Ed Weiler,
associate administrator for space science at NASA, said in a
statement.
The two rovers will bounce to airbag-cushioned landings at the
opposite side of Mars. At a height of about 1.5 meters, each rover
carries five scientific instruments and can work as a robot field
geologist, self-driving across the Martian surface, navigating
itself around obstacles and examining rocks and soil for clues
about water and life.
The designated landing site for the rover Spirit is Gusev Crater,
which appears to have been a lake in the past, according to Dr. Joy
Crisp, a project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in
Pasadena, California.
Recent observations by spacecraft orbiting Mars indicated that
there was water on the planet in the past, but scientists hope to
find out how long water existed in Mars and whether it could
sustain the existence of life.
The two rovers, at a total cost of US$800 million, are a new test
for NASA as the world's largest space agency is trying to
reestablish its credibility after the failure of two Mars probes
four years ago and the loss of space shuttle Columbia early this
year.
(Xinhua News Agency June 11, 2003)