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Space Topics

Mars Express


Mars Express is the European Space Agency's first mission to Mars and its first mission to another planet. ESA christened it an "Express," because it was built, designed, and flown relatively quickly -- six years from conception to arrival. The spacecraft launched from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on June 2, 2003 aboard a Soyuz/Fregat rocket, and successfully entered Martian orbit on December 25, 2003, maneuvering first into a highly elliptical capture orbit, then aerobraking into a near-polar orbit later in January 2004.

Since then, Mars Express has been studying the Martian atmosphere, surface, and subsurface, contributing new volumes to the knowledge base, with instruments contributed by England, France, Sweden, Germany, and Italy. Among its many accomplishments, the mission has confirmed water-ice at the south pole; returned intriguing measurements of methane in the atmosphere; and discovered the first auroras on Mars. The spacecraft is also using ground-penetrating radar to look for subsurface water, and "snapping" the first high-resolution stereo color camera images, stunning images that will be used to map the entire planet in 3-D from an altitude as close as 260 kilometers (161 miles). Unfortunately, the mission's life-sniffing lander, Beagle 2, was declared lost in January 2004 after it failed to make contact, but the "puppy" did succeed in raising awareness and buoyant enthusiasm for British and European participation in space exploration.

In September 2005, as Mars Express was closing in on the end of its primary mission of one Martian year (687 Earth days), ESA announced it was extending the mission of its orbiter for another Martian year. It has since been extended twice more; the mission is now funded through December 31, 2009.

Mars Express Basic Facts

Launch date: June 2, 2003
Mars arrival: December 25, 2003
End of primary mission: November 12, 2005 (one Mars year after arrival)
Extended mission: To December 31, 2009