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Paris, 2 June 2003
Press Release
Nx 36-2003

Mars Express en route for the Red Planet

Part 1 of 2

The European Mars Express spaceprobe has been placed successfully in
a trajectory that will take it beyond the terrestrial environment and
on the way to Mars - getting there in late December. This first
European Space Agency probe to head for another planet will enter an
orbit around Mars, from where it will perform detailed studies of the
planet's surface, its subsurface structures and its atmosphere. It
will also deploy Beagle 2, a small autonomous station which will land
on the planet, studying its surface and looking for possible signs of
life, past or present. 

The probe, weighing in at 1 120 kg, was built on ESA's behalf by a
European team led by Astrium. It set out on its journey to Mars
aboard a Soyuz-Fregat launcher, under Starsem operational management.
The launcher lifted off from Baïkonur in Kazakhstan on 2 June at
23.45 local time (17:45 GMT). An interim orbit around the Earth was
reached following a first firing of the Fregat upper stage. One hour
and thirty-two minutes later the probe was injected into its
interplanetary orbit. 

"Europe is on its way to Mars to stake its claim in the most detailed
and complete exploration ever done of the Red Planet. We can be very
proud of this and of the speed with which have achieved this goal",
said David Southwood, ESA's Director of Science witnessing the launch
from Baikonur. Contact with Mars Express has been established by
ESOC, ESA's satellite control centre, located in Darmstadt, Germany.
The probe is pointing correctly towards the Sun and has deployed its
solar panels. All on-board systems are operating faultlessly. Two
days from now, the probe will perform a corrective manœuvre that will
place it in a Mars-bound trajectory, while the Fregat stage, trailing
behind, will vanish into space - there will be no risk of it crashing
into and contaminating the Red Planet.

Mars Express will then travel away from Earth at a speed exceeding 30
km/s (3 km/s in relation to the Earth), on a six-month and 400
million kilometre journey through the solar system. Once all payload
operations have been checked out, the probe will be largely
deactivated. During this period, the spacecraft will contact Earth
only once a day. Mid-journey correction of its trajectory is
scheduled for September. 

There in time for Christmas

Following reactivation of its systems at the end of November, Mars
Express will get ready to release Beagle 2. The 60 kg capsule
containing the tiny lander does not incorporate its own propulsion
and steering system and will be released into a collision trajectory
with Mars, on 20 December. It will enter the Martian atmosphere on
Christmas day, after five days' ballistic flight. As it descends, the
lander will be protected in the first instance by a heat-shield; two
parachutes will then open to provide further deceleration. With its
weight down to 30 kg at most, it will land in an equatorial region
known as Isidis Planitia. Three airbags will soften the final impact.
This crucial phase in the mission will last just ten minutes, from
entry into the atmosphere to landing. 

Meanwhile, the Mars Express probe proper will have performed a series
of manœuvres through to a capture orbit. At this point its main motor
will fire, providing the deceleration needed to acquire a highly
elliptical transition orbit. Attaining the final operational orbit
will call for four more firings. This 7.5 hour quasi-polar orbit will
take the probe to within 250 km of the planet.

Getting to know Mars - inside and out

Having landed on Mars, Beagle 2 - named after HMS Beagle, on which
Charles Darwin voyaged round the world, developing his evolutionary
theory - will deploy its solar panels and the payload adjustable
workbench, a set of instruments (two cameras, a microscope and two
spectrometers) mounted on the end of a robot arm. It will proceed to
explore its new environment, gathering geological and mineralogical
data that should, for the first time, allow rock samples to be dated
with absolute accuracy. Using a grinder and corer, and the "mole", a
wire-guided mini-robot able to borrow its way under rocks and dig the
ground to a depth of 2 m, samples will be collected and then examined
in the GAP automated mini-laboratory, equipped with 12 furnaces and a
mass spectrometer. The spectrometer will have the job of detecting
possible signs of life and dating rock samples. 

The Mars Express orbiter will carry out a detailed investigation of
the planet, pointing its instruments at Mars for between half-an-hour
and an hour per orbit and then, for the remainder of the time, at
Earth to relay the information collected in this way and the data
transmitted by Beagle 2.

 - Continued -

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