Space scientists in Oxfordshire are keeping their fingers crossed that a mission in search of life on Mars will have a hitch-free launch on Monday.

Experts at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, in Chilton, near Didcot, hope that Mars Express, a European Space Agency mission to the Red Planet, will blast off successfully from Kazakhstan at 6.45pm UK time.

They helped design Aspera, a device that will study the erosion of Mars' atmosphere by solar wind.

While Aspera orbits the planet, a lander called Beagle 2 -- named after Charles Darwin's ship -- will carry out tests on Mars' surface.

A sense of anticipation is growing in the run-up to the launch, which RAL scientists plan to watch via a live video link.

Prof Manuel Grande, of RAL's Planets and Space Plasma Group, said: 'Everybody at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory who's been working on Mars Express over the last few years is looking forward to the launch and keeping their finger crossed.

"It's the end of building, and the start of finding out where the water on Mars has gone. We can see there was water in the past, and it isn't on the surface now.

"So either it went up or down. If it went down, Beagle should find it. But maybe it went up and was blown away by the solar wind. If so, the new detectors we provided for the Aspera experiment can image the process."

The spacecraft is due to arrive at its destination on Christmas Day. Live coverage of the launch will be web-streamed on the internet at www.sstd.rl.ac.uk/launches/