 | | | | |
| | | | | |
|
| Europe goes to Mars About Mars Express About Mars Meet the team Multimedia VideoTalkMars Express imagesMars Express videosHRSC videosAnimation in 11 languagesDownload wallpapersDownload screensavers3D Flash 'model'Make a modelServices Comments
| | | | | | | | | Mars Express (Artist's impression) | |
Mars Express: a planetary detective
Recent space missions have revealed a wealth of knowledge about Mars, but also raised many questions. What forces, for example, created the spectacular features in the martian landscape? When did they cease? Or do some still act today? Was early Mars really warm and wet? If so, where did the water and atmosphere go? Did life evolve there? And is primitive life still thriving, perhaps associated with underground aquifers?
| | | The Beagle 2 lander |
The Mars Express mission will help to answer these questions and many more by mapping the martian sub-surface, surface, atmosphere and ionosphere from orbit and by conducting observations and experiments on the surface.
"We are addressing a series of noble objectives," says Agustin Chicarro, Mars Express Project Scientist at ESTEC. "As well as helping to answer the big questions about water and life, our investigations will provide clues as to why the north of the planet is so smooth and the south so rugged, how the Tharsis and Elysium mounds were lifted up and whether active volcanoes exist on Mars today. We should also find out about the minerals in the rocks and the composition of the atmosphere in greater detail than ever before".
The Mars Express Orbiter will:
- image the entire surface at high resolution (10 m/pixel) and selected areas at super resolution(2 m/pixel)
- produce a map of the mineral composition of the surface at 100 m resolution
- map the composition of the atmosphere and determine its global circulation
- determine the structure of the sub-surface to a depth of a few kilometres
- determine the effect of the atmosphere on the surface
- determine the interaction of the atmosphere with the solar wind
|
The Beagle 2 lander will:
- determine the geology and the mineral and chemical composition of the landing site
- search for life signatures (exobiology)
- study the weather and climate
|
| |
| |
|
