ESA title

The mission

Since beginning science operations in 2004, Mars Express has provided breathtaking views of Mars in three dimensions. It has provided the most complete map of the chemical composition of the atmosphere, studied Mars’s innermost moon Phobos in unprecedented detail, and traced the history of water across the globe, demonstrating that Mars once harboured environmental conditions that may have been suitable for life.

 

  • Launch date: 2 June 2003
  • Arrival at Mars: December 2003
  • Status: In operation
  • Targets: Mars's atmosphere, surface and subsurface; Mars's moons Phobos and Deimos
Mars Express
Raspberry ripples near Mars’s south pole
Science & Exploration

Purple swirls on the Red Planet

16/09/2026 3725 views 49 likes
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Mars Express spies metallic waves in Mars’s ancient highlands
Science & Exploration

Metallic waves on ancient Mars

15/07/2026 4378 views 81 likes
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Dust devils galore: Mars Express visits Mamers Valles on Mars
Science & Exploration

Dozens of dust devils hidden in plain sight

17/06/2026 3852 views 51 likes
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Mars vast clay region
Science & Exploration

ExoMars rover targets vast bed of clay in search for life

04/06/2026 4809 views 59 likes
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Mars Express visits Shalbatana Vallis on Mars
Science & Exploration

Waterworn chaos on Mars

13/05/2026 4863 views 101 likes
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Mars Express captures dark ash covering Mars’s Utopia Planitia
Science & Exploration

Ash creeps across Mars

15/04/2026 13533 views 98 likes
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Coronal mass ejection on 27 May 2024
Science & Exploration

ESA’s Mars orbiters watch solar superstorm hit the Red Plan…

05/03/2026 12186 views 62 likes
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Counting craters in Mars’s ancient highlands
Science & Exploration

Counting craters

04/03/2026 3856 views 52 likes
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Overhead perspective of Flaugergues Crater
Science & Exploration

Explore Mars’s Flaugergues Crater

04/02/2026 3803 views 82 likes
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Mars Express sees sandblasted wind sculptures near Eumenides Dorsum
Science & Exploration

Sandblasting on Mars

07/01/2026 4743 views 67 likes
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Bird’s-eye view: the butterflies and dark layers of Idaeus Fossae
Science & Exploration

A martian butterfly flaps its wings

03/12/2025 10645 views 83 likes
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The patterns of Coloe Fossae: What a martian ice age left behind
Science & Exploration

What a martian ice age left behind

12/11/2025 5728 views 77 likes
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Mars Express sees a dust devil dancing across Mars
Science & Exploration

Dancing dust devils trace raging winds on Mars

08/10/2025 12005 views 63 likes
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ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter observes comet 3I/ATLAS – GIF
Science & Exploration

ESA’s ExoMars and Mars Express observe Comet 3I/ATLAS

07/10/2025 630025 views 832 likes
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Mars Express views Acheron Fossae’s western fringes
Science & Exploration

When martian ground falls apart

06/08/2025 4763 views 69 likes
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Arcadia Planitia as seen by ESA’s Mars Express
Science & Exploration

Earth tones on Mars

26/06/2025 5554 views 47 likes
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Science & Exploration

Recipe for a ‘rocky road’ crater soaked in martian history

21/05/2025 3820 views 53 likes
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Mars Express
Enabling & Support

Mars Express updates software, potentially extending spacec…

16/05/2025 3120 views 31 likes
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Acheron Fossae as seen by ESA’s Mars Express
Science & Exploration

Martian rock on the move

09/04/2025 5896 views 75 likes
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Why is Mars red?
Science & Exploration

Have we been wrong about why Mars is red?

25/02/2025 24464 views 126 likes
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Frosty scene at the south pole of Mars
Science & Exploration

Dreaming of a white Christmas – on Mars

18/12/2024 5209 views 65 likes
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Cryptic terrain in Australe Scopuli on Mars
Science & Exploration

Cryptic Mars, a land shaped by ice

09/10/2024 7072 views 82 likes
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Caralis Chaos as seen by ESA’s Mars Express
Science & Exploration

Take a trip to Mars’s largest lake

07/08/2024 7044 views 86 likes
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A snaking scar on Mars
Science & Exploration

A snaking scar on Mars

03/07/2024 16551 views 81 likes
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Newfound frost atop Olympus Mons
Science & Exploration

Frosty volcanoes discovered in Mars’s tropics

10/06/2024 35366 views 58 likes
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Mars Inca City
Science & Exploration

Signs of spiders from Mars

24/04/2024 77842 views 118 likes
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Annotated image of Mars
Science & Exploration

Mars Express celebrates 25 000 orbits

27/03/2024 10016 views 106 likes
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Sand dunes meet stacked ice at Mars’s north pole
Science & Exploration

Sand dunes meet stacked ice at Mars’s north pole

28/02/2024 6363 views 62 likes
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Map of suspected ice at Mars’s equator
Science & Exploration

Buried water ice at Mars's equator?

18/01/2024 50679 views 99 likes
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Mars during the 2023 solar conjunction
Enabling & Support

Spacecraft fall silent as Mars disappears behind the Sun

17/11/2023 7736 views 127 likes
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 Green glow in the martian night
Science & Exploration

A green glow in the martian night

10/11/2023 12433 views 105 likes
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Science & Exploration

Landslides at the foot of Olympus Mons

23/08/2023 21938 views 244 likes
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The clays of Mawrth Vallis
Science & Exploration

The clays of Mawrth Vallis

19/07/2023 6685 views 134 likes
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Earth and Moon seen by Mars Express
Science & Exploration

Earth and Moon seen from Mars

12/07/2023 69107 views 323 likes
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Mars Express images combined to produce global Mars in colour
Science & Exploration

20 years of Mars Express: Mars as never seen before

02/06/2023 50468 views 394 likes
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The flanks of Ascraeus Mons
Science & Exploration

Chasms on the flanks of a martian volcano

09/05/2023 12733 views 173 likes
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Nectaris Fossae and Protva Valles
Science & Exploration

Deep fractures and water-carved valleys

31/01/2023 6262 views 137 likes
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Swirling craterscape at the south pole of Mars
Science & Exploration

Christmas craterscape

22/12/2022 7548 views 150 likes
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Mars dust storm in motion
Science & Exploration

Martian dust storms churn up Earth-like clouds

15/11/2022 19303 views 126 likes
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Mars Express HRSC image of Phobos, taken on 7 March 2010
Enabling & Support

A close encounter with a mysterious moon

28/10/2022 10488 views 201 likes
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Terra Sirenum, Mars
Science & Exploration

Craters and cracks on Mars

26/10/2022 5547 views 151 likes
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Science & Exploration

Mars and Jupiter moons meet

13/10/2022 22729 views 58 likes
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Science & Exploration

Chaotic crust contains clues to Mars’ watery past

31/08/2022 7785 views 131 likes
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Mars global map of hydrated minerals
Science & Exploration

New water map of Mars will prove invaluable for future expl…

22/08/2022 44429 views 144 likes
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Science & Exploration

Mars Express peers into Mars' 'Grand Canyon'

20/07/2022 31800 views 336 likes
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Mars Express
Enabling & Support

Software upgrade for 19-year-old martian water-spotter

21/06/2022 47956 views 227 likes
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Science & Exploration

Mars sleeps with one eye open

08/06/2022 10847 views 188 likes
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Science & Exploration

Tantalising tectonics

28/04/2022 9528 views 166 likes
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Utopia Planitia on Mars
Science & Exploration

Martian brain freeze

30/03/2022 13179 views 189 likes
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The Medusae Fossae formation
Science & Exploration

Caution! Martian wind at work

23/02/2022 6483 views 95 likes
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