Scientific Invasion to Mars Starts Soon

May 12 -- When two rovers are launched to Mars this June, one thing NASA engineers hope they'll never have to confront is silence.

It was a painful silence that set in at Mission Control last February as the Columbia made its fateful descent to Earth. Silence also reigned as NASA controllers — and much of the world — breathlessly awaited the touchdown of the Mars Polar Lander in December 1999.

Just a few months earlier, scientists who had been hoping for signals from the Mars Climate Orbiter instead met a sickening quiet. The orbiter was lost just as it started to circle the Red Planet.

But thanks to intensive preparation and the reliance on old, dependable models, NASA scientists say they have reason to be confident they'll be hearing the beeps and churns of communication from two land rovers once they touch down on Mars.

The first of the two rovers (neither of which has yet named) is scheduled to launch between June 9 and June 19, followed by the second probe 10 days later. The twin rovers should land on Mars about six months later, in early January 2004.

Still, many hasten to add that landing a craft on the Red Planet — more than 36 million miles from Earth — can never be a guaranteed success.

Mars Overview: Click for an interactive...

"Let's not kid ourselves, sending something across the solar system and landing it on another planet is not like getting on an airplane and flying to L.A.," said Peter Christensen, a geologist at Arizona State University who has worked on an experimental device that will travel on one of the rovers. "It's a very risky business. But these teams are very talented and I think it's fair to say everything that can be done to make them work has been done."

Mars: A 'Harsh Mistress'

Back in 1999, errors behind the failed Mars Climate Orbiter and Mars Polar Lander programs appeared to stem from a harried staff working under the "Faster, Better, Cheaper" mantra coined by NASA's previous administrator, Dan Goldin.