Mars needs company

Flotilla of spacecraft to study Red Planet

If there is anything intelligent — on Mars, it is about to have a lot of company.

A flotilla of exploratory spacecraft is already circling the Red Planet and will soon land on the surface.

A joint European Space Agency-British mission will plant a small stationary robot on the surface and the first of two U.S. probes will land in January. A Japanese craft has experienced some problems and will be delayed a few years.

Two NASA craft already are in orbit around Mars. When all the spacecraft finally arrive it will be the greatest convergence of craft on a single planet at the same time.

The mission is to look for evidence of life or of longstanding water that could sustain life — past or present.

Six years ago, small robots traversed the planet and sent back stunning pictures. Since that time there have been some problems with other probes — bad calculations sent one careening off into the galaxy.

Man has long studied the mysterious planet. There have been numerous theories about life there. After all these centuries, Mars remains a mystery. Maybe this new effort will finally give us the answers we seek.