Mars Express


Nationality: European (ESA) and Russian (IKI)
Type: Planetary (Mars Orbiter and Lander)
Orbit: Interplanetary / Martian
Mass: 1100kg (inc fuel)
Launched: 2003 June 02d 17h 45m GMT
Designation: 2003-022A

Status

Cruise Mode All systems GO

Milestones

Launched from Bailonur by a Soyuz-Fregat rocket Successful
Mars Orbit Insertion Successful
Mars Landing (by Beagle 2) 2003 December 25 No signal recieved. The spacecraft may have fallen into a hitherto undiscovered crater. Attemps to make contact are continuing. Further information

Instruments Carried

ASPERA energetic neutral atom analyzer to study how the solar wind erodes the atmosphere.
Principal Investigator: Rickard Lundin, Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Kiruna.
Mass: 6.7 kg
Further information

HRSC (High/super Resolution Stereo Colour imager) is a camera to image the Martian surface and its atmosphere in 3D at a dual resolution of 10-30 metres and 2 metres.
Mass: 21.2 kg
Principal Investigator: Gerhard Neukum, Institut für Weltraumsensorik und Planetenerkundung, Berlin.
Further information

MARSIS (Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding) will produce a radar map of fthe surface and also detect water at depths of a kilometre or so. These operations will take place during the Martian night when the planet's ionopshere will be transparent. During thew Martian Day, the instrument will monitor ionospheric phenomena.
Mass: 12 kg
Principal Investigator: Giovanni Picardi, Universita di Roma, Rome, Italy. Further information.

PFS (Planetary Fourier Spectrometer) is intended to obtain spectra of atmospheric gases.
The Principal Investigator: Vittorio Formisano, Instituto Fisica Spazio Interplanetario, Rome, Italy.
Further information.

MaRS (Mars Radio Science experiment) will analyze the telemetry signals from the spacecraft in order to monitor the Martian atmosphere and related phenomena.
Principal Investigator: Martin Pätzold, Universität Köln, Cologne, Germany.

OMEGA is a mineralogical mapping spectrometer.
Mass: 29 kg
Principal Investigator: Jean-Pierre Bibring, Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale, Orsay, France.
Further information

SPICAM is a UV and IR atmospheric spectrometer that will probe the atmosphere.
Principal Investigator: Jean-Loup Bertaux, Service d'Aeronomie, Verrieres-le-Buisson, France.

Beagle 2 will make in situ analysis of the soil, after landing at 10.6° N and 270° W in the sedimentary basin known as Isidis Planitia.
Mass: 65 kg
Diameter: 0.95metres
Lead Scientist: Colin Pillinger of the Open University, UK
Mission Manager: Mark Sims, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK
Further information

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