NASA will release an announcement of opportunity next month for a low-cost small-scale Mars Scout science mission. This is to be launched in 2007 as a piggyback payload on a commercial communications satellite flight to geostationary orbit. Meanwhile, the radiation environment instrument on NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter has restarted after going silent last year en route to Mars. The spacecraft's onboard cameras are to take pictures of candidate landing sites for the twin Mars Rover mission to be launched next year.
Source: Flight International
