An artists impression of Mars Express. The spacecraft left Earth for Mars on June 2, 2003.
Mars Express, a spacecraft run by the European Space Agency (ESA), just recently performed tests in which it passed on information collected by NASAs Perseverance rover back to Earth. This means the 19-year-old spacecraft has actually now passed on information for seven different Mars surface objectives– a special, new record!
Landers and rovers on Mars gather information that help scientists answer fundamental questions about the atmosphere, geology, surface environment, history of water, and potential for life on the Red Planet.
To get these insights to Earth, they first send the information up to spacecraft in orbit around Mars. These orbiters then utilize their much larger, more powerful transmitters to relay the information throughout space to big deep-space antennas in the world.
Information relay is a vital part of Mars expedition, with commands sent out to rovers and landers on the surface through orbiting spacecraft, and in turn, clinical data collected by the surface area missions is returned to Earth through the orbiter. All of ESA and NASAs orbiters offer information relay services for surface objectives. Credit: ESA– S. Poletti
” Data relay is an essential part of Mars expedition,” states James Godfrey, Mars Express Spacecraft Operations Manager at ESAs ESOC mission control center. “We are happy that Mars Express has played a role in the interagency Mars information relay network over several years and has actually supported numerous surface properties. This network will be important to support future objectives to the Red Planet, such as those of the Mars Sample Return project.”
The tests with Perseverance coincide with the orbiters 10th Martian anniversary. Mars Express got to Mars on December 25, 2003, nearly 19 Earth years back. As one Martian year amounts to approximately 687 Earth days, the spacecraft commemorated 10 Martian years in orbit on 16 October 2022.
Travel through Martian history.
Artists impression of NASAs MER Spirit rover on the surface area of Mars. Credit: NASA
Team Spirit
In 2004, just 2 months after coming to Mars, Mars Express flew over NASAs Spirit rover.
The ESA orbiter sent out commands to the rover, which then sent its information as much as the orbiter in the first-ever demonstration of an interagency interactions network around another planet.
The commands for the rover initially had to be transferred from the Spirit Operations Team at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), USA, to ESOC in Germany. Here they were translated into commands for Mars Express, then uplinked to the orbiter and sent down to the rover.
This view of the interior slope and rim of Endurance Crater originates from the navigation video camera on NASAs Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity with a help from the ESAs Mars Express. Opportunity took the three frames that comprise this image on August 4, 2004, then sent them with other information to Mars Express, which in turn relayed them to Earth. Rover wheel tracks show up in the foreground. Credit: NASA/JPL
Chance knocks
7 further communication tests were performed between Mars Express and NASAs Opportunity rover in early 2008. Structure on the tests with Spirit, they helped enhance ESA-NASA interaction at Mars.
NASAs Mars Phoenix lander identified perchlorate salts in the Martian Arctic in 2008. Credit: NASA
The landing of Phoenix
On May 25, 2008, Mars Express tracked the descent of the Phoenix lander and relayed the information to NASA to assist validate the information from their own orbiters. In the weeks after landing, Mars Express when again demonstrated its capability to reliably pass on information from the Martian surface area to Earth.
This was taken on Sol 57 (October 4, 2012) of target Rocknest3 utilizing the ChemCam Remote Micro-Imager (RMI) on the NASA Curiosity rover at a distance of 3.7 meters. The image was downlinked to Earth by ESAs Mars Express orbiter via the 35m deep area ESTRACK station in New Norcia, Australia. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL/ CNES/IRAP.
Curiosity rocks.
In 2012, Mars Express was depended relay vital science information from NASAs Curiosity rover back to Earth. It was a small but considerable next action for interplanetary cooperation between area agencies.
Early on the morning of October 6, the ESA orbiter lined up its lander communication antenna to point at Curiosity far below on the surface.
For 15 minutes, the NASA rover transmitted scientific data approximately the ESA satellite, prior to Mars Express turned to point its more powerful high-gain antenna toward Earth and started downlinking the valuable details.
The data included this picture of a rock obtained by Curiosity during the very first soil analyses made utilizing its mobile laboratory. Mars Express downlinked the image to ESOC in Germany via ESAs 35 m-diameter deep-space antenna in New Norcia, Australia. All the relayed data were then instantly provided to JPL in California for processing and analysis.
An artists rendition of the InSight lander operating on the surface of Mars. InSight, short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport, is a lander developed to offer Mars its very first comprehensive checkup since it formed 4.5 billion years ago. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.
Closer cooperation InSight.
It was Mars Expresss younger brother or sister, ESAs Trace Gas Orbiter, that took the next step and established the first-ever routine interplanetary information relay assistance in between companies when it started supporting NASAs InSight lander. But Mars Express continued its important work serving as contingency assistance for yet another brand-new lander.
ESA Mars Express communicates data from CNSA Zhurong rover. Credit: ESA.
Zhurong calling.
Over the last year, Mars Express has performed tests with the China National Space Administration (CNSA) Zhurong rover to examine radio system compatibility and the possibility of supporting data relay with the rover.
NASAs Mars 2020 Perseverance rover will save rock and soil samples in sealed tubes on earths surface for future missions to retrieve, as seen in this illustration. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech.
Determination settles.
The current successful data relay tests with NASA Perseverance bring the overall Mars surface missions supported by Mars Express up to a record-breaking seven.
Mars Express has actually been a fundamental part of Europes key role in the Mars information relay network and continues to deliver essential science and services while remaining one of ESAs lowest-cost missions to fly.
In the last number of years, the veteran orbiter has helped keep an eye on conditions at the Perseverance landing website, partnered with ESAs Trace Gas Orbiter to trial a brand-new technique that could return as much as 18 years worth of radio science in two months, and received a significant software application upgrade that is reviving an instrument designed in the world more than 20 years back.
Information relay is an important part of Mars expedition, with commands sent out to rovers and landers on the surface through orbiting spacecraft, and in turn, clinical data collected by the surface area objectives is sent out back to Earth through the orbiter.” Data relay is an important part of Mars expedition,” states James Godfrey, Mars Express Spacecraft Operations Manager at ESAs ESOC objective control. “We are happy that Mars Express has actually played a function in the interagency Mars information relay network over lots of years and has supported so lots of surface area properties. Mars Express got here at Mars on December 25, 2003, almost 19 Earth years ago. Chance took the 3 frames that make up this image on August 4, 2004, then transmitted them with other information to Mars Express, which in turn communicated them to Earth.