A dataset provided by the European Space Agency

Name MEX-M-VMC-3-RDR
Mission MARS-EXPRESS
URL https://archives.esac.esa.int/psa/ftp//pub/mirror/MARS-EXPRESS/VMC/MEX-M-VMC-3-RDR-V1.0
DOI https://doi.org/10.5270/esa-2ukfwdq
Abstract N/A
Description https://archives.esac.esa.int/psa/ftp//pub/mirror/MARS-EXPRESS/VMC/MEX-M-VMC-3-RDR-V1.0/CATALOG/AAREADME.TXT
Instrument VMC
Temporal Coverage 2003-06-06T00:00:00Z/2003-12-19T00:00:00Z
Version V1.0
Mission Description Mission Overview Mars Express was the first flexible mission of the revised long-term ESA Science Programme Horizons 2000 and was launched to the planet Mars from Baikonur (Kazakhstan) on June 2nd 2003. A Soyuz-Fregat launcher injected the Mars Express total mass of about 1200 kg into Mars transfer orbit. Details about the mission launch sequence and profile can be obtained from the Mission Plan (MEX-MMT-RP-0221) and from the Consolidated Report on Mission Analysis (CREMA)(MEX-ESC-RP- 5500). The mission consisted of (i) a 3-axis stabilized orbiter with a fixed high-gain antenna and body-mounted instruments, and (ii) a lander named BEAGLE-2, and was dedicated to the orbital and in-situ study of the interior, subsurface, surface and atmosphere of the planet. After ejection of a small lander on 18 December 2003 and Mars orbit insertion (MOI) on 25 December 2003, the orbiter experiments began the acquisition of scientific data from Mars and its environment in a polar elliptical orbit. The nominal mission lifetime for the orbiter was 687 days following Mars orbit insertion, starting after a 5 months cruise. The nominal science phase has been extended until 2020 as of 2019. Mars Express continues to provide valuable scientific data to the Mars science community, and is scheduled to support operations of the ExoMars rover due to be launched in 2020. The Mars Express spacecraft represented the core of the mission, being scientifically justified on its own by investigations such as high- resolution imaging and mineralogical mapping of the surface, radar sounding of the subsurface structure down to the permafrost, precise determination of the atmospheric circulation and composition, and study of the interaction of the atmosphere with the interplanetary medium. The broad scientific objectives of the orbiter payload are briefly listed thereafter and are given more extensively in the experiment publications conta...
Creator Contact ELENI RAVANIS AND JORGE HERNANDEZ-BERNAL
Date Published 2020-09-01T00:00:00Z
Publisher And Registrant European Space Agency
Credit Guidelines European Space Agency, 2020-09-01T00:00:00Z, MEX-M-VMC-3-RDR, V1.0. https://doi.org/10.5270/esa-2ukfwdq