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Mars Express - 5000 orbits and counting

23 November 2007

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An artist's impression of Mars Express. The spacecraft left Earth for Mars on 2 June 2003. It reached its destination after a six-month journey, and has been investigating the planet since early 2004.

Credits: ESA - D. Ducros

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This image of the Martian north polar ice cap shows layers of water ice and dust for the first time in perspective view. Here we see cliffs which are almost 2 kilometres high, and the dark material in the caldera-like structures and dune fields could be volcanic ash.

Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)

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Hydrated minerals as mapped by Mars Express’ OMEGA

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This image shows the global distribution of hydrated (water-rich) minerals as discovered by the OMEGA instrument on board ESA’s Mars Express. The map is superimposed on an altitude reference map of Mars built with data from the MOLA instrument on board NASA's Mars Global Surveyor. The red marks indicate the presence of phyllosilicates, the blue ones indicate sulphates, the yellow ones indicate other hydrated minerals.

Credits: IAS/OMEGA/ESA

Looking at Mars

In depth

This article in depth

Mars Express highlights

Water on Mars

Mars and the search for traces of life Mars Express: First global map of martian ionosphere Setting stars reveal planetary secrets Interplanetary networking: ESA’s Mars Express will keep an eye on NASA’s Phoenix Relays from Mars demonstrate international interplanetary networking The origin of perennial water-ice at the South Pole of Mars Decoding Mars’s Cryptic Region Mars Express and the story of water on Mars Rare high-altitude clouds found on Mars Mars Express’s OMEGA uncovers possible sites for life Buried craters and underground ice -
Mars Express uncovers depths of Mars