The launch has now been rescheduled for the fall of 2011. The earlier plan was to launch the mission in October 2009 but this was deemed no longer feasible because of testing and hardware challenges that must be addressed to ensure mission success, said the space agency.

According to NASA, the mission will send a next-generation rover with unprecedented research tools to study the early environmental history of Mars.

The advanced rover is one of the most technologically challenging interplanetary missions ever designed. It will use new technologies to adjust its flight while descending through the Martian atmosphere, and to set the rover on the surface by lowering it on a tether from a hovering descent stage, agency resources said.