Heavy Rain Delays Search For Water On Mars

NASA's search for water on Mars had to wait for one more day, after a heavy line of thunderstorms forced officials at the Kennedy Space Center (FL) to delay launching the first of two robot rovers Sunday morning. The launch of the MER-I mission is now scheduled for Monday afternoon, but even that launch is a candidate for wash-out. Forecasters say there's a 60-percent chance that the rains will continue through the next launch window.

Cover Up

Approximately 40 minutes before Sunday morning's pre-dawn launch, crews servicing the MER and its Delta II rocket moved the launch gantry back into position and configured the "clean room" module around the payload itself. They finished just before heavy rains, strong winds and lightning blew across Florida's Cape Canaveral.

Still, NASA is putting an optimistic face on what is clearly a perilous mission. “We sincerely hope it will be the successful beginning to one of the first great 21st century voyages of exploration,” NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe said Sunday. Of the 12 Mars landers launched over the past three decades, only three have been successful. The last was the Pathfinder mission in 1997.

Here's The Plan...

The MER-I launch will be followed later this month by a second Delta II mission. Both payloads include rovers specifically designed to find water - the precursor of life - on Mars. They'll land on opposite sides of the planet in January, a bid to widen the possibilities of success.

Already the European Space Agency has its Mars Express mission in flight, launched a week ago. It carries the British-made Beagle II rover, designed to look for signs of life on the red planet.

Naming The Rovers

The Rovers were given names on Sunday, after 10,000 entries were received in a contest to christen the vehicles. The winner was nine-year old Sofi Collins of Scottsdale (AZ), who wanted to call the first rover "Spirit" and the second, "Opportunity."

“I used to live in an orphanage. It was dark and cold and lonely,” said Sofi, who was adopted from Siberia and brought to the US when she was two-years old. “In America, I can make all my dreams come true. Thank you for the spirit and the opportunity.”

FMI: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mer/