Mars Express
CG image of Mars Express
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| Mission type | Mars orbiter |
|---|---|
| Operator | ESA |
| COSPAR ID | 2003-022A |
| SATCAT no. | 27816 |
| Website | exploration |
| Mission duration | Elapsed: 13 years, 9 months and 16 days since launch 13 years, 2 months and 21 days at Mars |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Launch mass | 1,123 kg (2,476 lb) |
| Dry mass | 666 kg (1,468 lb) |
| Power | 460 watts |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | 2 June 2003, 17:45 UTC |
| Rocket | Soyuz-FG/Fregat |
| Launch site | Baikonur 31/6 |
| Contractor | Starsem |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Areocentric |
| Eccentricity | 0.571 |
| Periareion | 298 km (185 mi) |
| Apoareion | 10,107 km (6,280 mi) |
| Inclination | 86.3 degrees |
| Period | 7.5 hours |
| Mars orbiter | |
| Spacecraft component | Mars Express |
| Orbital insertion | 25 December 2003, 03:00 UTC MSD 46206 08:27 AMT |
| Mars lander | |
| Spacecraft component | Beagle 2 |
| Landing date | 25 December 2003, 02:54 UTC |
 ESA solar system insignia for the Mars Express mission |
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 Cydonia region© ESA/DLR Credit — 13.7 m/pixel |
Mars Express is a space exploration mission being conducted by the European Space Agency (ESA). The Mars Express mission is exploring the planet Mars, and is the first planetary mission attempted by the agency. "Express" originally referred to the speed and efficiency with which the spacecraft was designed and built. However "Express" also describes the spacecraft's relatively short interplanetary voyage, a result of being launched when the orbits of Earth and Mars brought them closer than they had been in about 60,000 years.
Mars Express consists of two parts, the Mars Express Orbiter and the Beagle 2, a lander designed to perform exobiology and geochemistry research. Although the lander failed to fully deploy after it landed on the Martian surface, the orbiter has been successfully performing scientific measurements since early 2004, namely, high-resolution imaging and mineralogical mapping of the surface, radar sounding of the subsurface structure down to the permafrost, precise determination of the atmospheric circulation and composition, and study of the interaction of the atmosphere with the interplanetary medium.
Due to the valuable science return and the highly flexible mission profile, Mars Express has been granted six mission extensions, the latest until the end of 2016.
Some of the instruments on the orbiter, including the camera systems and some spectrometers, reuse designs from the failed launch of the Russian Mars 96 mission in 1996 (European countries had provided much of the instrumentation and financing for that unsuccessful mission). The design of Mars Express is based on ESA's Rosetta mission, on which a considerable sum was spent on development. The same design was also used for the Venus Express mission in order to increase reliability and reduce development cost and time. Because of these redesigns and repurposings, the total cost of the project was about $345 million- less than half of comparable U.S. missions.
On 19 October 2014, the ESA reported the Mars Express is healthy after the Comet Siding Spring flyby of Mars on 19 October 2014 — as are, as well, all NASA Mars orbiters and ISRO's orbiter, the Mars Orbiter Mission.
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