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<b>Red Planet Under Fire In Proposed Mission</b><br /><br />LINK<br /><br />Scientists have had a smashing idea that could help them explore beneath Mars's dusty surface. Slamming a hefty chunk of copper into the planet should excavate enough material to reveal water ice or carbon-based chemicals lurking underground, according to a proposed NASA mission.<br /><br />The idea follows the success of Deep Impact, a mission that fired a copper 'impactor' into comet Tempel 1, while its delivery craft recorded the whole show with an array of sensors (see 'Deep Impact: sifting through the debris').<br /><br />The new mission takes exactly the same approach to Mars. Called THOR (Tracing Habitability, Organics and Resources), it would be the second of NASA's Mars scout missions, low-cost probes that are designed and built in just a few years. The first scout, Phoenix, is due to launch in August 2007.<br /><br />THOR has been proposed by Phil Christensen, a planetary scientist at Arizona State University, Tempe, and David Spencer of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. <br /><br />Christensen estimates that the impactor should be about 100 kilograms or so, and hit the planet at more than 15,000 kilometres per hour. It is hoped this would make a crater roughly 50 metres in diameter, and up to 25 metres deep.<br /><br />Meanwhile, its mother ship would look for ice, minerals and organic compounds thrown out by the crash. <br /><br />A cunning plan<br /><br />Christensen admits that it is a simple enough approach. "I guess there'll be a lot of people out there going, 'Why didn't I think of that'," laughs Christensen. But that simplicity should help to ensure the mission's success, he adds.<br /><br />Keeping two rovers running around on Mars is a tremendous feat of engineering, but sending something that can burrow or drill is even more challenging, Christensen points out.<br /><br />Moreover, expl