Friday, September 12, 2008

Mars update



Mars Express Status Report - March 2008
Overall Mission, Payload, and Science Planning Status
On 2 October 2007 Mars Express successfully performed a close flyby of Phobos coming to within ~140 km of the moon. During the flyby a number of the HRSC observations were unfortunately lost due to an overload of the system. The impact of this is relatively small as HRSC already has acquired a lot of detailed Phobos data during past observations. The data from MARSIS for this close flyby, which are unique, are being analyzed.
Date: 18 Mar 2008


Mars Express Status Report - November 2007
The 2007 eclipse season ended on 31 August; preparations for the 2008 eclipse seasons, with long eclipses during aphelion, started in October. The Phoenix EDL (Entry-Descent-Landing) support will take place during the 2008 eclipse season. In preparation for this Phoenix support a number of tests were performed between Melacom (Mars Express communications system for Beagle-2) and the MER rovers. These included interference tests between Melacom and ASPERA/MARSIS.
Date: 19 Nov 2007


Mars Express Status Report - May 2007
Mission Status
The spacecraft has been operating nominally, and with the Earth-Mars distance decreasing, the data rate is continuously increasing, allowing for a commensurate increase in data return.
Date: 23 May 2007