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Paris, 30 May 2003
Information Note
Nx 12-2003

Mars Express - how to be fastest to the Red Planet

Part 1 of 2

ESA's Mars Express is a pioneering mission for several reasons. It is
the first European voyage to Mars, it has been built at much less
than the usual cost, and in record time.

Mars Express is the first example of ESA's new style of developing
scientific missions: faster, smarter and more cost-effective, but
without compromising reliability and quality - there have been no
cuts in tests or pre-launch preparations. Mars Express will face
demanding technical challenges during its trip to the Red Planet and
ESA engineers have worked hard to make sure it meets them.

"With Mars Express, Europe is building its own expertise in many
fields. This ranges from the development of science experiments and
new technologies - new for European industry - to the control of a
mission that includes landing on another planet. We have never done
this before,” says Rudi Schmidt, Mars Express Project Manager.

Quicker, smarter…safe!

Mars Express's design and development phase has taken about four
years, compared with about six years for previous similar missions.
And its cost, 300 million euros, is much less than other comparable
planetary missions. The 'magic' lies in the new managerial approach
being used.

This new approach includes the reuse of existing hardware and
instruments. Also, the mission was developed by a smaller ESA team,
who gave more responsibility to industry. Mars Express has been built
by a consortium of 24 companies from ESA's 15 Member States and the
United States, led by Astrium as prime contractor.

However, mission safety was never compromised. "Although we were
under heavy pressure towards the end of the project, we did not drop
any of the planned tests to save time. I call this a fast design
phase, followed by thorough testing activity," says Schmidt.

This new streamlined development method will continue with Venus
Express and probably other future missions.

Launch

Mars Express will be launched on 2 June on board a Soyuz-Fregat
rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The mission
consists of an orbiter and a lander, called Beagle 2. In its launch
configuration, Mars Express is a honeycombed aluminium box that
measures 1.5 by 1.8 by 1.4 metres (excluding solar panels), and
weighs 1223 kilograms in total. The Beagle-2 lander travels attached
to one side of the spacecraft, folded up rather like a very large
pocket watch. Arrival at Mars is scheduled for late December this
year, when Beagle 2 will land while the orbiter is entering its orbit
around Mars. 

The last activities of an intense launch campaign are taking place in
Baikonur at this very moment. Mars Express arrived at the Cosmodrome
on 20 March. The spacecraft, fuelled with 457 kilograms of
propellant, was mounted on the Soyuz launcher on 24 May in a process
that the Russians call 'marriage'. The whole structure was rolled out
to the launch pad on 29 May, four days before launch.

The fastest possible trip to Mars 

One of the reasons scientists had to develop Mars Express so quickly
arises from the fact that, this summer, Mars and the Earth will be
especially close to each other. Although launch opportunities to go
to Mars occur every 26 months - when the Sun, Earth and Mars form a
straight line - this year the planets will be at their closest, which
happens every 15 to 17 years. On top of that, calculations had shown
that the best combination of fuel expenditure and travel time could
only be achieved by launching in the period between 23 May and 21
June. The Mars Express team had to work very hard to meet this launch
window. 

As a tribute from one European high-tech organisation to another,
Mars Express is carrying a small container of Ferrari red paint to
the Red Planet.

After the launch

Mars Express will separate from the Soyuz Fregat upper stage 90
minutes after liftoff. Then the solar arrays will open and the
spacecraft will make contact with ESA's ground station in New Norcia,
Western Australia. 

Mars Express will be travelling away from Earth at a speed of 3
kilometres per second. A crucial operation at this early stage of the
trip will be to release the Beagle-2 launch clamps three days after
launch. These clamps are extra gears to make sure that the lander
stays securely attached to the spacecraft during the launch, but once
in space they are not needed any more. A pyrotechnic device will be
activated to release them. This will be a key step, necessary so that
Beagle 2 can be ejected when the spacecraft arrives at Mars.

Every effort has been made to ensure that things go smoothly. Schmidt
says: "We have tested all aspects of the mission well enough to be
confident that there will be no errors or trivial mistakes. Mars
Express has been developed in record time, but there have been no
compromises on testing, including the ground segment."

Orbiting and landing on Mars 

Six days before arrival at Mars, the lander will be released. This
operation is regarded as one of the most complex of the Mars Express
mission. Beagle 2, which weighs only 65 kilograms, is too light to
carry a steering mechanism and is not designed to receive commands
during cruise and landing. So Beagle 2 can only reach its planned
landing site by relying on the orbiter to put it into the correct
trajectory and drop it at a very precise point in space and at a
specified speed. The ground control team at the European Space
Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany, will guide this
manoeuvre. To be ready for the approach to Mars and the ejection
operations, engineers have been training for months with simulators
that resemble sophisticated computer games. Tests will continue
after Mars Express's launch.

 - Continued -

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