NASA's Mars Surveyor 2001 orbiter, which will be launched on 7 April, aboard a Delta II booster, has been named 2001 Mars Odyssey as a tribute to author Arthur C Clarke. It will also represent a "new start" in Mars exploration after the debacle of last year's loss of the Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander. The 2001 Mars Odyssey, due to arrive at the red planet in October 2001, will carry three instruments - a thermal emission imaging system, a gamma ray spectrometer and the Mars Radiation Environment Experiment - to detect water and shallow buried ice and study the radiation environment of Mars. NASA will launch twin Mars Rover missions in 2003.
Source: Flight International
