For surfers who wish to delve deeper into cyberspace, the opportunity to visit Mars will become a reality, starting December 3.

Thanks to a project by The Planetary Society, the Mars Polar Lander spacecraft, scheduled to touch down on the Red Planet on Dec. 3, will broadcast both video and audio samples back to earth, where they will be available online at http://www.planetary.org . The probe is expected to land near the Martian South Pole and is carrying a tiny device called the Mars Microphone that will beam whatever it hears to Terra Firma for Internet transmission. Scientists working on the project said the event will mark the first extra-terrestrial sound ever to be heard by humans, other than the noise and chatter recorded within astronaut space suits. According to the society, sending a microphone to Mars was initially proposed by the association_s co-founder, Carl Sagan. Janet Luhmann of the University of California at Berkeley, and David Juergens of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, then teamed with other Planetary Society members to make the Mars Microphone Project a reality, the organization said. The organization was founded in 1980 and its Website contains detailed information about the mission. Video images from Mars will also be available at http://www.missiontomars.movies.com and additional sights can be viewed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory's site at http://marslander.jpl.nasa.gov.