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Mars Express – ESA sets ambitious goals for the first European mission to Mars

20 May 2003

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The Mars Express orbiter.

Credits: ESA

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This image from the Mars Orbiter Camera clearly shows large contraction-crack polygons which may have developed as a result of the repeated seasonal or episodic melting, freezing and movement of water in an active layer overlying an ice-rich permafrost zone. (The scale bar is 200 m.)

Credits: Image courtesy of Nature and Victor R. Baker (University of Arizona)

The missing water

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Water may once have flowed freely on Mars and, like the Earth, the planet receives sunlight and has its own internal energy source. So the odds on primitive life thriving for at least some time during the planet’s history are reasonably good.

Credits: NASA

The search for life

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Beagle 2 is travelling to Mars on ESA's Mars Express, launched in June 2003. Beagle 2, a UK-led project, will look for chmecial traces of life on Mars. On the Martian surface, the lander will open up to expose five solar panels and let the instruments on the robot arm get to work. (Photo: all rights reserved Beagle 2)

Credits: All Rights Reserved Beagle 2

Mars Express

ESA's Mars Express ready for launch Mars Express leaves for Baikonur