Mars Express
An artist's concept of the Mars Express probe orbiting Mars.
Mars Express is a Mars exploration mission of the European Space Agency and Italian Space Agency. The spacecraft was launched on June 2 2003 from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, using a Soyuz-Fregat rocket, and began its inter-planetary voyage. The use of the word "express" in this mission's name refers originally to the relatively short time of its voyage, which was launched in time when Earth and Mars was closer to each other than ever in recorded history (about 60,000 years). However it also describes nicely the speed and efficiency with which the spacecraft was designed and built.
The craft consists of the Mars Express Orbiter which also carried a lander, Beagle 2, designed to perform exobiology and geochemistry research. It was hoped the lander would shed light on whether Mars had once supported or possibly supports living organisms. Many of the instruments on the orbiter, including the camera systems and some spectrometers, are duplicates of those lost in the launch failure of the Russian Mars 96 mission in 1996 (European countries had provided much of the instrumentation and financing for that unsuccessful mission). It also borrows technology from the ESA's Rosetta mission. The design of the Mars Express will be reused in the Venus Express mission.
The orbiter entered Mars orbit on December 25, 2003, and Beagle 2 entered Mars' atmosphere the same day. After repeated attempts to contact the lander failed, it was declared lost on February 6, 2004, by the Beagle 2 Management Board. On February 11, ESA announced an inquiry would be held into the failure of Beagle 2.
In the meantime, the Mars Express Orbiter has started its science phase and performs excellently at the start of a two year survey of Mars.
Related articles
External links
- Mars Express project (official site) (http://sci.esa.int/marsexpress/)
- BBC item: "Europe's Mission to Mars" (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/sci_nat/03/race_to_mars/mission_guide/html/)
- Europe blasts off to Mars (http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993791) New Scientist
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Categories: Mars missions