NASA has announced a 2-year delay for the next Mars mission, due to hardware challenges and further testing being needed. Considering the flight window - determined by Earth and Mars’ positions - is only open for a short period of time once every two years, NASA announced the next date for launch for the Mars Science Laboratory will be 2011.

The excitement about the remarkable discoveries on Mars made during the recent Phoenix mission got scientists even more eager to launch the next mission on the Red Planet. The event was initially scheduled for late 2009, but according to NASA’s recent announcement, that date is no longer feasible, and we are now looking at a 2 year postponement, until 2011.

The Mars Science Laboratory is part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, and its mission is to make further investigations on Mars’ past, present or future habitability. In order to do that, the rover, which is larger and faster than Opportunity and Spirit, will be equipped with the latest, most advanced instruments for scientific studies.

This also means a lot of work needs to be done in order to put all systems in place. The rover will be relying on a lot of science instruments to obtain information about the geology, atmosphere, environmental conditions, and other aspects of Mars.

Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA, explained that due to the complexity of the mission, they chose not to lessen the standards for testing, and instead take the more responsible approach of changing the launch date.

The decision to postpone the mission had to be made despite the fact that all efforts have focused on next year’s launch, despite all the excitement about new Mars discoveries, and despite the fact that the delay will increase taxpayers’ investment in the mission, he said. However, they’ve reached the conclusion that they could not condense the schedule even more in order to make the deadline, without compromising vital testing.

The rover is expected to land on the Red Planet in 2012. Unlike its predecessors, the Mars Science Laboratory will rely on newer technology, which will allow it to roll over obstacles up to 75 centimeters (29 inches) high, and travel up to 90 meters (295 feet) per hour (although on average, the rover is expected to travel 30 meters per hour).

The payload will be 10 times the mass of instruments on Spirit and Opportunity rovers, the scientists said, but the new rover is expected to travel farther and on more difficult terrains than before. With the help of its radioisotope power system that generates electricity from the heat of plutonium’s radioactive decay, the mission will have an estimated operating lifespan of a full Martian year, or 687 Earth days.

Scientists are still considering the best landing site for the rover. Two weeks ago, they announced four possible places: Eberswalde, where an ancient river deposited a delta in a possible lake; Gale, with a mountain of stacked layers including clays and sulfates; Holden, a crater containing alluvial fans, flood deposits, possible lake beds and clay-rich deposits; and Mawrth, which shows exposed layers containing several types of clay.

The Mars Science Laboratory is being assembled and tested at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. After all the testing is done, the spacecraft will be moved to Cape Canaveral, Florida, where it will begin its long journey on Mars.

Scientists expect the Mars Science Laboratory mission to serve as an entrée to the next decade of exploration on the Red Planet. Furthermore, the mission is expected to create the premises for future exploration capabilities, such as a Mars Sample Return mission that would collect rocks and soils and send them back to Earth for analysis, and acquire all information needed for future human exploration.