Mars Lander Search To End Monday...01/17/00

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) - The fruitless search for life from NASA's Mars Polar Lander will be abandoned Monday, ending any hope the $165 million mission to the Red Planet can be saved. The three-legged lander was to have touched down Dec. 3 for a 90-day mission near Mars' south pole to study the atmosphere and dig for ice. It was last heard from minutes before beginning its descent. Instead of reveling in new pictures and science, controllers have been methodically testing different scenarios to explain the silence. Their last attempt ends at 8 a.m. PST Monday, said Richard Cook, the lander's project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Investigators will continue to seek an explanation for the failure and have launched a review of the Mars program, which also lost an orbiter in September.