In Brief:

Canada wants Mars probe of its own

(CNN) -- No longer content with flying instruments on other robot ships, the Canadian Space Agency wants to send a probe of its own to the red planet.

The agency, which announced its ambitious initiative this weekend, has yet to select the spacecraft, the instruments or the flight year. But it does intend to spend a lot of money.

CSA managers said the agency will spend at least ten times more money compared to most space projects. Agency scientist Alain Berinstain said the cost could exceed hundreds of millions of Canadian dollars. A Canadian dollar is worth about 75 (U.S.) cents.

While Canada wants to be the primary probe builder and manager, it will have to work with a larger space agency to secure a vehicle for its launch, tentatively slated for 2007 or 2009.

In the meantime, CSA must settle for the next best thing, an instrument onboard a Japanese orbiter that should reach the Mars system in 2004.

'Free spirits' discovered in space

(CNN) -- Astronomers for the first time have detected the existence of "free spirit" atoms in the solar system, a discovery that could help them forecast space weather, NASA said this week.

The atoms are electrically neutral and therefore immune to the solar wind, magnetic particle streams that emanate from the sun.

Free spirit atoms are rare. For every 10,000 electrified solar atoms there are no more than 10 neutral ones. However that minute amount is still ten times more than predicted.

The solar wind can slow down intense, periodic bursts of ionized molecules and electrons from the sun known as coronal mass ejections (CMEs). But since the solar wind does not affect the travels of the neutral atoms in the CMEs, the free spirit atoms can herald the imminent arrival of their electrified cousins, which can disrupt electronic communications systems and power grids.

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