WASHINGTON - As NASA reshapes a future Mars exploration agenda, the European Space Agency is moving out on a fast-track mission, its first to the Red Planet.
Called the Mars Express, this faster-better-cheaper pedigree of a planetary probe is already touted as pepping up space science in Europe.
Priced at $60 million, the Mars Express will loop and snoop at Mars, all in a quest for subsurface water. To do so, on-board gear will snap up-close images, chart the mineralogical makeup of the martian terrain, eye the planet's atmosphere, and radar-scan for icy signs of below-surface permafrost.
Mars Express is to rocket out of the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, set for liftoff within a June 1-10, 2003 time period. The interplanetary probe will be lofted atop a Soyuz/Fregat booster. However, if problems crop up with that rocket, the backup plan is to utilize a U.S. Delta 2 or the European Ariane 4 booster, said Rudolf Schmidt, Mars Express project manager with the European Space Technology Center in Noordwijk, The Netherlands.
On arrival in December 2003, the spacecraft will operate in Mars orbit for two martian years. During that time, the Beagle 2 lander will be deployed for an airbag landing on Mars' cratered and riverbed-laden surface.
A touchdown of the Beagle 2 is slated between December 26-30, targeted into an area of Mars called Maja Valles. The British-built lander will bounce to a stop not too distant from the U.S. Mars Pathfinder's July 1997 resting spot.
Cost savings and team spirit
Mars Express is seen as a new way of doing business by the European Space Agency (ESA).
But small and therefore cheap is not a sufficient argument, said Gordon Whitcomb, head of ESA's future science projects, studies and technology office in Noordwijk, The Netherlands.
The multinational makeup of ESA means the organization has to cope with a wide-ranging and variable political environment. That imposes strict constraints on how ESA operates, said Whitcomb. "We're not organized for doing small missions, as such," he said.
Whitcomb said that a new ESA-industry partnership has been forged. That high-tech handshake between government and private sector has meant the time to design, build, test and launch a spacecraft like Mars Express has been cut in half from a typical 11-year span, he said.
"The motivation for ESA is therefore not just to provide smaller, cheaper missions, but more to use the experience of small-satellite development to improve the quality and effectiveness of larger mission procurements," Whitcomb said.
Rosetta's helping hand
To help shave costs, there has been extensive reuse of hardware and software culled from ESA's Rosetta mission. Rosetta will be launched in January 2003 by an Ariane 5 from Kourou, French Guiana. It will head outward to study the nucleus of comet Wirtanen, arriving there in 2011.
As if to check up on a distant relative, Rosetta will swing by Mars in 2005 in order to gain an extra boost to reach the comet. Mars Express is expected to be still operating as Rosetta saunters by.
Responsible for building Rosetta, as well as Mars Express, is the tri-national Astrium, a newly formed aerospace powerhouse, formed by merger of companies in three European countries.
ESA's Schmidt said Mars Express is on target, fueled by team spirit instilled within a small cadre of government, industry and science-community workers.
Last month, ESA and Japanese teams began building closer links in the joint study of Mars.
Japan's Nozomi spacecraft arrives at Mars shortly after Mars Express. Nozomi follows an equatorial orbit at Mars that will be complementary to the polar orbit of Mars Express.
Nozomi's main duty is the study of Mars' upper atmosphere. The data it collects, therefore, can be merged with atmospheric information gleaned by Mars Express. Collectively, the twosome at Mars can keep a cooperative eye of the martian atmosphere.
The Beagle has landed
No doubt, the headline-stealer of Mars Express is likely to be Britain's Beagle 2 lander.
"We hope Beagle will be successful. If it meets its full mission requirements then I think it's very important for the European space industry," said Ian Praine, a senior design engineer for Astrium in Stevenage, England.
"We are very excited in Britain and in Europe for the future of Beagle and follow-on programs," Praine told SPACE.com.
Praine said that options for a Mars 2005 project are under consideration, akin to the Beagle 2 lander. "Beagle is not the end. It's the beginning for us. We want to move on from there," he said.
advertisement
