Mars Express
The Mars Express spacecraft is
Europe’s first mission to the Red Planet.
It was launched on June 2, 2003 atop a
Russian Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur
Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and attained
orbit on December 25, just prior to the
arrivals of Spirit and Opportunity. The probe
has worked magnificently
ever since.
It is equipped with
eight science instruments
from a variety of European
nations. The High Resolution
Stereo Camera (HRSC) from
Germany
has
provided
thousands of fabulous color
images from all over Mars with
a two meter resolution. The
Visible and Infrared Mineralogical
Mapping Spectrometer (OMEGA)
spectrometer from France discovered
deposits of phyllosilicate clay minerals from
orbit. The Sub-Surface Sounding Radar
Altimeter (MARSIS) from Italy discovered
subsurface water and complements the
SHARAD radar instrument on MRO.
MAVEN
MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and
Volatile EvolutioN Mission) is NASA’s next
mission to Mars and scheduled to lift off
on Nov. 18, 2013 from Cape Canaveral,
Florida. Read complete details about
MAVEN in the story starting on page 22.
Mars Orbiter Mission
MOM counts as India’s first ever
mission to Mars. It is due to blastoff on
India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle
(PSLV) from Srihanikota, India during a
launch window that runs from Nov. 5
to Nov. 19. The orbiter is a technology
demonstrator equipped with cameras
and atmospheric spectrometers. NASA
is providing communications and
navigation support through the Deep
Space Network (DSN). Read complete
details about MOM in the story starting
on page 20.
The nations of Earth plan even more
exciting missions to Mars later this
decade, We’ll describe them in a future
issue of RocketSTEM.
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