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Tuesday, February 19, 2002 Odyssey Begins its Mission Mars Odyssey. Credit: NASA The Odyssey probe has begun its 917-day mission this week. One of the top priorities is the search for water. Whether water is still exists on the planet or if it has evaporated into space remains a question. Scientists hope Odyssey, and its ability to sniff out the hydrogen bound to oxygen that forms water, will answer that question. Odyssey will also search for table salt, the deposit of liquid water. From about 250 miles, the thermal emission imaging system and a combination gamma ray spectrometer and neutron detector will map out the distribution of chemicals in the top three feet or so of the Martian soil. A third instrument, designed to monitor radiation, has malfunctioned. @ 16:14 EST