Mars Express
Mars Express is a space exploration mission being conducted by the European Space Agency (ESA). The Mars Express mission is exploring the planet Mars, and is the first planetary mission attempted by the agency. "Express" originally referred to the speed and efficiency with which the spacecraft was designed and built. However, "Express" also describes the spacecraft's relatively short interplanetary voyage, a result of being launched when the orbits of Earth and Mars brought them closer than they had been in about 60,000 years.
CG image of Mars Express arriving at Mars | |
| Mission type | Mars orbiter |
|---|---|
| Operator | ESA |
| COSPAR ID | 2003-022A |
| SATCAT no. | 27816 |
| Website | exploration |
| Mission duration | Elapsed: 20 years, 8 months and 11 days since launch 20 years, 1 month and 19 days at Mars |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Launch mass | 1,123 kg |
| Dry mass | 666 kg (1,468 lb) |
| Power | 460 watts |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | June 2, 2003, 17:45 UTC |
| Rocket | Soyuz-FG/Fregat |
| Launch site | Baikonur 31/6 |
| Contractor | Starsem |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Areocentric |
| Eccentricity | 0.571 |
| Periareion altitude | 298 km (185 mi) |
| Apoareion altitude | 10,107 km (6,280 mi) |
| Inclination | 86.3 degrees |
| Period | 7.5 hours |
| Mars orbiter | |
| Spacecraft component | Mars Express |
| Orbital insertion | December 25, 2003, 03:00 UTC MSD 46206 08:27 AMT |
| Mars lander | |
| Spacecraft component | Beagle 2 |
| Landing date | December 25, 2003, 02:54 UTC |
| Instruments | |
| High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC), Visible and Infrared Mineralogical, Mapping Spectrometer (OMEGA), Sub-surface Sounding Radar Altimeter (MARSIS), Planetary Fourier Spectrometer (PFS), Ultraviolet and Infrared Atmospheric Spectrometer (SPICAM), Energetic Neutral Atoms Analyser (ASPERA), Mars Radio Science Experiment (MaRS), Visual Monitoring Camera (VMC) | |
ESA Solar System insignia for the Mars Express mission | |
Mars Express consists of two parts, the Mars Express Orbiter and Beagle 2, a lander designed to perform exobiology and geochemistry research. Although the lander failed to fully deploy after it landed on the Martian surface, the orbiter has been successfully performing scientific measurements since early 2004, namely, high-resolution imaging and mineralogical mapping of the surface, radar sounding of the subsurface structure down to the permafrost, precise determination of the atmospheric circulation and composition, and study of the interaction of the atmosphere with the interplanetary medium.
Due to the valuable science return and the highly flexible mission profile, Mars Express has been granted several mission extensions. The latest was approved on March 7, 2023, consisting of a confirmed operating period until December 31, 2026, and a further provisional extension to December 31, 2028.
Some of the instruments on the orbiter, including the camera systems and some spectrometers, reuse designs from the failed launch of the Russian Mars 96 mission in 1996 (European countries had provided much of the instrumentation and financing for that unsuccessful mission). The design of Mars Express is based on ESA's Rosetta mission, on which a considerable sum was spent on development. The same design was also used for ESA's Venus Express mission in order to increase reliability and reduce development cost and time. Because of these redesigns and repurposings, the total cost of the project was about $345 million- less than half of comparable U.S. missions.
Arriving at Mars in 2003, 20 years, 1 month and 19 days ago (and counting), it is the second longest surviving, continually active spacecraft in orbit around a planet other than Earth, behind only NASA's still active 2001 Mars Odyssey.