MRO launch just over 3 mo away
But science operations don't commence 'til Nov. 2006. It'll be interesting if the rovers somehow manage to be still be alive when MRO arrives. You have to feel a sense of progress albeit slow, when there will be 4 orbiters flying around Mars. One of MRO's mission objectives will be to look for geothermal sites with their optical imager that can see resolve objects about the size of a dinner table. Anyway, my antici.........pation of this mission will be hard to handle for 15 mo's.