[meteorite-list] Mars Express Enters Orbit Around Mars

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:18:04 2004
Message-ID: <200312251836.KAA09128_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

Paris, 25 December 2003
European Space Agency
Press Release
Nr 84-2003

Merry Christmas from Mars
Mars Express enters orbit around the Red Planet
Contact awaited with Beagle 2 on the surface

This morning, after a journey lasting 205 days and covering 400 million
km, the European Mars Express space probe fired its main engine at 03:47
CET for a 37-minute burn in order to enter an orbit around the Mars. This
firing gave the probe a boost so that it could match the higher speed of
the planet on its orbit around the Sun and be captured by its gravity
field, quite like climbing in a spinning merry-go-round. This orbit
insertion manoeuvre was a complete success.

This is a great achievement for Europe on its first attempt to send a
space probe into orbit around another planet.

At approximately the same time, the Beagle 2 lander, protected by a
thermal shield, entered the Martian atmosphere at high velocity and is
expected to have reached the surface at about 03:52 CET. However, the
first attempt to communicate with Beagle 2, three hours after landing, via
NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter, did not establish radio contact. The next
contact opportunity will be tonight at 23h40 CET.

The tiny lander was released from the orbiter six days ago on a collision
course towards the planet. Before separation, its onboard computer was
programmed to operate the lander as from its arrival on the surface, by
late afternoon (Martian time). According to the schedule, the solar panels
must deploy to recharge the onboard batteries before sunset. The same
sequence also tells Beagle 2 to emit a signal in a specific frequency for
which the Jodrell Bank Telescope, UK, will be listening late tonight.
Further radio contacts are scheduled in the days to come.

In the course of the coming week, the orbit of Mars Express will be
gradually adjusted in order to prepare for its scientific mission. Mars
Express is currently several thousand kilometres away from Mars, in a very
elongated equatorial orbit. On 30 December, ESA's ground control team will
send commands to fire the spacecraft's engines and place it in a polar,
less elongated orbit (about 300 km pericenter, 10000 apocenter, 86°
inclination). From there, ESA's spacecraft will perform detailed studies
of the planet's surface, subsurface structures and atmosphere.
Commissioning of some of the onboard scientific instruments will begin
towards mid-January and the first scientific data are expected later in
the month.

"The arrival of Mars Express is a great success for Europe and for the
international science community. Now, we are just waiting for a signal
from Beagle 2 to make this Christmas the best we could hope for!” said
David Southwood, head of ESA's Science Directorate. "With Mars Express, we
have a very powerful observatory in orbit around Mars and we look forward
to receiving its first results. Its instruments will be able to probe the
planet from its upper atmosphere down to a few kilometres below the
surface, where we hope to find critical clues concerning the conditions
for life, in particular traces of water. We expect this mission to give
us a better understanding of our neighbour planet, of its past and its
present, answering many questions for the science community and probably
raising an even greater number of fascinating new ones. I hope we can see
it as opening up a new era of European exploration."

For further information, please contact :
ESA Media Relations Service
Tel: +33(0)1.53.69.7155
Fax: +33(0)1.53.69.7690
Received on Thu 25 Dec 2003 01:36:54 PM PST