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After a string of mission failures, high hopes are riding on NASA’s latest
foray to Mars which is due to lift off this week. The Mars Odyssey mission will
orbit the Red Planet carrying three mineralogy instruments. A camera will record
images in 10 visible and infrared bands. A gamma-ray spectrometer will look for
water in the upper few centimetres of the crust. A third sensor will measure
radiation levels. The probe will reach Mars in October and manoeuvre into an
orbit 400 kilometres above the surface. After two years of surveying, the probe
will act as a relay station for a pair of landers that should be launched in
2003.