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New hiccup for Europe's Mars space probe
A long-delayed attempt to deploy a water-searching radar aboard Europe's Mars Express spacecraft has run into fresh problems, the European Space Agency (ESA) said on Monday. The instrument, MARSIS, should have been deployed in April 2004 but the operation was postponed to let engineers calculate the risk of a dangerous whiplash if its three seven-metre (24.5-feet) radar booms are unfolded. In February this year, a review board cautiously gave the green light and the first boom was unfolded last Wednesday. But on Friday flight control technicians found that one of the 13 segments of this boom had not locked properly into position, ESA said in a press statement on Monday. Deployment of the second boom "has been delayed pending investigation," ESA said. MARSIS is one of the most important of the seven instruments carried on Mars Express, Europe's first solo mission to explore another planet. It is designed to send powerful low-frequency radio waves towards the planet which are capable of penetrating the ground to a depth of several kilometers (1.5 miles). The reflected energy is then picked up by the orbiter and transcribed to give an image of Mars's sub-surface structure. The main interest is to see whether there could be reserves of water locked beneath the planet's chill, arid surface. A flurry of missions since the start of the millennium has determined that, once, the Red Planet was awash with water but the precious substance mysteriously disappeared millions of years ago. Finding large reserves of water would be the key to sending a manned expedition to Mars, providing a scout mission with the means to survive. Mars Express arrived on Mars on December 25 2003. Without MARSIS -- the Mars Express Sub-Surface Sounding Radar Altimeter -- the craft has mainly sent back images. Its mission nominally ends on November 30 this year. All rights reserved. � 2004 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse. Related Links SpaceDaily Search SpaceDaily Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express 
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