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NASA hopes weather holds for Mars launch
Cape Canveral, June 29: NASA kept a careful watch on the sky on Saturday, hoping weather would not spoil the night launch of a robotic explorer destined for Mars and a search for long vanished water sources on the Red Planet.
Cape Canveral, June 29: NASA kept a careful watch on the sky on Saturday, hoping weather would not spoil the night launch of a robotic explorer destined for Mars and a search for long vanished water sources on the Red Planet.
Weather forecasters said there was a 40 percent chance that showers or storm clouds could delay launch of the Delta 2 rocket carrying the second of two Mars Exploration Rovers. They are golf-cart sized robots built to spend at least three months exploring the Martian surface.
"We`ve had a couple of good days of weather, but in Florida in June, that`s not going to last. We do expect showers and thunderstorms to resume," said Joel Tombiolo, launch weather officer.
The second Mars Rover, nicknamed Opportunity, is set for liftoff on Saturday at 11:56 p.m. EDT. It will join its twin, Spirit, which launched June 10, on a seven-month journey to the Red Planet.
They are expected to arrive in early January.
On Earth, life exists wherever natural sources of water are found, which accounts for the space agency`s keen interest in ancient sources of Martian water.
NASA does not expect the rovers to find life. But if the robots succeed, scientists will know if water that boiled away eons ago -- when Mars was catastrophically stripped of its atmosphere -- survived long enough for life to generate.
The six-wheeled rovers have the ability to scoop up soil and drill into rocks, then examine the samples. Data will be sent back to Earth for analysis by scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, where the mission control will be located.
The twin missions will join European and Japanese spacecraft already on their way to Mars.
All of the missions are taking advantage of a rare proximity between the planets -- with just 85 million miles for Sunday`s launch, Mars is making its closest approach to Earth this summer in 15,000 years. That cuts the normal travel time from nine or 10 months to seven. Bureau Report
Weather forecasters said there was a 40 percent chance that showers or storm clouds could delay launch of the Delta 2 rocket carrying the second of two Mars Exploration Rovers. They are golf-cart sized robots built to spend at least three months exploring the Martian surface.
"We`ve had a couple of good days of weather, but in Florida in June, that`s not going to last. We do expect showers and thunderstorms to resume," said Joel Tombiolo, launch weather officer.
The second Mars Rover, nicknamed Opportunity, is set for liftoff on Saturday at 11:56 p.m. EDT. It will join its twin, Spirit, which launched June 10, on a seven-month journey to the Red Planet.
They are expected to arrive in early January.
On Earth, life exists wherever natural sources of water are found, which accounts for the space agency`s keen interest in ancient sources of Martian water.
NASA does not expect the rovers to find life. But if the robots succeed, scientists will know if water that boiled away eons ago -- when Mars was catastrophically stripped of its atmosphere -- survived long enough for life to generate.
The six-wheeled rovers have the ability to scoop up soil and drill into rocks, then examine the samples. Data will be sent back to Earth for analysis by scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, where the mission control will be located.
The twin missions will join European and Japanese spacecraft already on their way to Mars.
All of the missions are taking advantage of a rare proximity between the planets -- with just 85 million miles for Sunday`s launch, Mars is making its closest approach to Earth this summer in 15,000 years. That cuts the normal travel time from nine or 10 months to seven. Bureau Report