Mars probe’s radar system hits snag
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7751425
By James Oberg, NBC News space analyst // Special to MSNBC
Updated: 4:32 p.m. ET May 9, 2005
The European Space Agency says it is delaying the deployment of a second radar boom on its Mars Express probe because the first boom, deployed last week, didn't fully lock into position. If the glitch can be resolved, the radar could help solve the mystery of what happened to the Red Planet's ancient seas.
In a statement released Monday, the space agency confirmed earlier reports that it had begun the long-delayed deployment of its Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding, or MARSIS, last Wednesday. The first of three booms was successfully unfolded from its storage compartment on the spacecraft, but ESA said one of the 65-foot-long (20-meter-long) boom's 13 segments wasn't locked in place.
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