The European Space Agency launched the first of three Mars exploration robots on June 2, 2003 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakstan, carrying the Mars Express orbiter and the British Beagle 2 Lander on a Soyuz/Fregat rocket. The craft are expected to arrive at Mars in December 2003. Beagle 2 will touch down on December 24, at Isidis Planitia a flat basin where water ice may be lurking beneath the Martian surface. The first of two twin Mars Exploration Rovers, MER 1, is slated for launch on June 8, 2003 from Cape Canaveral, Florida. The second vehicle, MER 2 is slated to launch on 6/25/ 2003. It will then take six months for the robot explorers to reach Mars and the landings are scheduled for January, 2004. It takes six months to get to Mars. That's because NASA is still using rocket technology developed in the 1940s and '50s. In January, 2004 we'll all be waiting for the Red Rover's arrivals, and anxious to see if the robots survive the landing. The scientist's at the Jet Propulsion Lab will be biting their nails big time, for getting the Rovers safely on the Martian surface will be fraught with danger. It is the landing system, itself, that is the worry. After insertion into the Martian atmosphere, a parachute system deploys to slow the Rover and a rocket system then fires suspending the Lander 30 to 50 feet above the surface. Then a complex airbag system inflates and the Lander drops to the surface. "The first recoil with Mars' surface is likely to propel MER hardware upwards of one hundred feet into the thin Martian air. Perhaps a dozen bounces roll to a stop and deflate," Mars Exploration Rover project manager, Peter Theisinger, said. "It is a very robust system, but one of the annoying features of it is that it lands more than once," reports JPL Mars Exploration Rover Deputy Mission Manager, Mark Adler. "It's how fast you hit. What you hit. How long you bounce. And how long the craft can survive it all," he adds. There is one danger after another that could damage the MER; wind shear, horizontal and vertical landing speeds and what king of terrain the MER lands on. sharp, or pointed rocks could cause early landing bag deflation, causing critical parts of the Lander to be damaged or destroyed. Other Mars landing missions have been wiped out in past years and NASA just can't afford another mission failure, especially after the Columbia disaster. The MER-A unit is set to land in the Gusev Crater 15 degrees south of the Martian equator on January 24, 2004. MER-B will land on January 25 at Meridiani Planum two degrees south of the equator, half a planet away from MER-A, if all goes well in between. The sites were chosen because NASA feels there is a good chance there once was water, and perhaps still is, at both sites. One of the main goals of the MER missions will be to prove that. Data from all three missions will be anxiously awaited by scientists here on Earth for any one of the three could not only prove there is water on Mars, but perhaps, even life. End 550 Wds