Mars Express and Spirit demonstrate international co-operation

Mars Express made an overflight of Spirit on the Martian surface, when commands were successfully transferred to the rover, and data received, by the orbiter.

Con McCarthy, ESA's Mars Express Lander Manager, said: "This is the first time we have had an in-orbit communication between an ESA and NASA spacecraft, and also the first working international communications network around another planet. Both are significant achievements, two more 'firsts' for Mars Express."

The commands for the rover first had to be transferred from the Spirit Operations Team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), USA, to ESA's European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Germany.

Here they were translated into commands for Mars Express, then uplinked to Mars Express which used them to successfully command Spirit.

Telemetry data transmitted from Spirit were received by Mars Express, which was relayed back via ESOC to JPL. Confirmation of the highly successful test came from JPL with the message: "We have completed an initial processing and assessment and the results are fantastic. The MEX-Spirit UHF pass was absolutely pristine, not a single bit missing or added. No duplications."

This exercise clearly demonstrates the increased flexibility and capabilities of inter-agency co-operation, and highlights the spirit of close support that is essential in undertaking international space exploration.