On 2 June 2003, the first European mission to Mars will be launched. It will also be the first European mission to any planet. Mars Express has been designed to perform the most thorough exploration ever of the Red Planet. It has the ambitious aim of not only searching for water, but also understanding the \u2018behaviour\u2019 of the planet as a whole. But maybe the most ambitious aim of all – Mars Express is the only mission in more than 25 years that dares to search for life.
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\nMars has always fascinated human beings. No other planet has been visited so many times by spacecraft. And still, it has not been easy to unveil its secrets. Martian mysteries seem to have increased in quantity and complexity with every mission. When the first spacecraft were sent – the Mariner series in 1960s – the public was expecting an Earth \u2018twin\u2019, a green, inhabited planet full of oceans. Mariner shattered this dream by showing a barren surface. This was followed by the Viking probes which searched for life unsuccessfully in 1976. Mars appeared dry, cold and uninhabited: the Earth\u2019s opposite.<\/p>\n
Now, two decades later, modern spacecraft have changed that view, but they have also returned more questions. Current data show that Mars was probably much warmer in the past. Scientists now think that Mars had oceans, so it could have been a suitable place for life in the past.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do not know what happened to the planet in the past. Which process turned Mars into the dry, cold world we see today?\u201d says Agustin Chicarro, ESA\u2019s Mars Express project scientist. \u201cWith Mars Express, we will find out. Above all, we aim to obtain a complete global view of the planet – its history, its geology, how it has evolved. Real planetology!\u201d<\/p>\n
Mars Express will reach the Red Planet by the end of December 2003, after a trip of just over six months. Six days before injection into its final orbit, Mars Express will eject the lander, Beagle 2, named after the ship on which Charles Darwin found inspiration to formulate his theory of evolution. The Mars Express orbiter will observe the planet and its atmosphere from a near-polar orbit, and will remain in operation for at least a whole Martian year (687 Earth days). Beagle 2 will land in an equatorial region that was probably flooded in the past, and where traces of life may have been preserved.<\/p>\n
The Mars Express orbiter carries seven advanced experiments, in addition to the Beagle 2 lander. The orbiter\u2019s instruments have been built by group of scientific institutes from all over Europe, plus Russia, the United States, Japan and China. These instruments are a subsurface sounding radar; a high-resolution camera, several surface and atmospheric spectrometers, a plasma analyzer and a radio science experiment.<\/p>\n
The high-resolution camera will image the entire planet in full colour, in 3D, at a resolution of up to 2 metres in selected areas. One of the spectrometers will map the mineral composition of the surface with great accuracy.<\/p>\n
The missing water Data from some of the instruments will be key to finding out what happened with the water which was apparently so abundant in the past. For instance, the radar altimeter will search for subsurface water and ice, down to a depth of a few kilometres. Scientists expect to find a layer of ice or permafrost, and to measure its thickness.<\/p>\n
Other observations with the spectrometers will determine the amount of water remaining in the atmosphere. They will also tell whether there is a still a full \u2018water cycle\u2019 on Mars, for example how water is deposited in the poles and how it evaporates, depending on the seasons.<\/p>\n
“These data will determine how much water there is left. We have clear evidence for the presence of water in the past, we have seen dry river beds and sedimentary layers, and there is also evidence for water on present-day Mars. But we do not know how much water there is. Mars Express will tell us,\u201d says Chicarro.<\/p>\n
The search for life The instruments on board Beagle 2 will investigate the geology and the climate of the landing site. But, above all, it will look for signs of life.<\/p>\n
Contrary to the Viking missions, Mars Express will search for evidence for both present and past life. Scientists are now more aware that a few biological experiments are not enough to search for life – they will combine many different types of tests to help discard contradictory results.<\/p>\n
To \u2018sniff\u2019 out direct evidence of past or present biological activity, Beagle 2\u2019s \u2018nose\u2019 is a gas analysis package. This will determine whether carbonate minerals, if they exist on Mars, have been involved in biological processes. Beagle\u2019s nose will also detect gases such as methane, which scientists believe can only be produced by living organisms.<\/p>\n
Beagle 2 will also be able to collect samples from below the surface, whether under large boulders or within the interiors of rocks – places that the life-killing ultraviolet radiation from the Sun cannot reach. These samples will be collected with a probe called the \u2018mole\u2019, which is able to crawl short distances across the surface, at about 1 centimetre every six seconds, and to dig down to 2 metres deep.<\/p>\n
Mars Express will add substantial information to the international effort to explore Mars. \u201cMars Express is crucial for providing the framework within which all further Mars observations will be understood,\u201d says Chicarro.<\/p>\n
The Mars Express spacecraft is now in Bajkonour, Kazakhstan, being prepared for its launch in early June 2003.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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