About Mars Express

Mars Expressis Europe’s first spacecraft to the Red Planet. The orbiter instruments are remotely investigating the Martian atmosphere, surface and subsurface. Beagle 2, the lander, was expected to perform on-the-spot measurements and also search for signs of past life.

One of the main objectives is to search for traces of water in the subsurface, through the atmosphere, and all the way up to free space. Seven scientific instruments on board the orbiting spacecraft will perform a series of remote sensing experiments designed to shed new light on the Martian atmosphere, the atmospheric structure, and geology. Scientists hope that Mars Express will detect the presence of water below the surface in the form of underground rivers, pools, aquifiers, or permafrost.

Mars Express travelled to the Red Planet in seven months arriving in in Mars orbit on 25 December 2003. It set off on its journey from the Baikonur launch pad in Kazakhstan on a Soyuz-Fregat launcher on 2 June 2003. After reaching an altitude of about 200 kilometres, the Fregat upper stage (which carries the spacecraft) fired its own motors to circularise the orbit 200 kilometres above the Earth. Just before completing the first orbit, it fired again to send itself and its cargo into an escape orbit, en-route for Mars.

Just before arrival at Mars, Mars Express released the Beagle 2 lander on a trajectory that would enter the Martian atmosphere and endure a bumpy ride through the Martian atmosphere down to the correct landing site on the surface. Beagle 2 reached the surface on December 25, 2003, but no signal was ever received from the Beagle 2 lander, and it was declared lost.

Mars Express is designed to record data for at least one Martian year, or 687 Earth days. The spacecraft also carries a data relay system for communicating with Earth.

Credits: ESA/DLR