Tim Furniss
A low cost mission to search for signs of life on Mars was announced at the show.
The $150 million European Space Agency (ESA) Mars mission, Mars Express, was described as a "water diviner".
The spacecraft is to search for sub-surface water from orbit and will also deploy a small UK-developed lander, called Beagle 2. This will search specifically for signs that life exists or once existed on the surface.
The first flight hardware for the Mars Express orbiter, particular the craft's solar array has been delivered, said ESA mission project manager Rudi Schmidt yesterday. The spacecraft prime contractor is Astrium, which has a $60 million contract from ESA. The orbiter and its Beagle 2 piggyback payload will be launched during a 10 day window starting on 1 June 2003 by a Starsem-operated Soyuz Fregat booster and will reach Mars on 20 December.
After Beagle 2 has been deployed as the mother ship swoops low over Mars, the Express craft will fire its engine to enter a 300km by 14,000km orbit around the poles of the Red Planet, making one orbit every 6hrs, Schmidt said.
Using a radar instrument developed with Italy and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the craft will be able to "peer" into the ground of Mars "to a depth of a few kilometres, to detect whether there is water under the surface," said Schmidt. Mars Express will also take the highest resolution images of the surface, enabling the detection of objects as small as 2m across.
Source: Flight Daily News
