ESA’s Mars Express Enters New Polar Orbit
By DAVID McHUGH
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Mission controllers on Tuesday redirected Europe’s Mars Express orbiter closer to the Red Planet’s poles, taking a crucial first step to push it into a lower orbit where it will be able to listen for its missing Beagle 2 surface probe.
Officials at the European Space Agency’s mission control center in Darmstadt, south of Frankfurt, adjusted the orbit by firing the main engine of Mars Express for five minutes at about 3 a.m. EST, spokesman Bernhard von Weyhe said.
The maneuver “has been completed very successfully,” he said.
The British-built Beagle 2 is believed to have reached the Martian surface early on Christmas Day, its impact softened by gas bags and parachutes. But several attempts to hear its signal have not been successful.
NASA’s orbiting Mars Odyssey searched again Tuesday after five successive days of silence, but there was no immediate word on the results. Efforts by researchers using powerful radio telescopes at the Jodrell Bank observatory in England and Stanford University in California have also come up empty.
Tuesday’s maneuver allowed controllers to move Mars Express, launched into orbit around Mars on Dec. 25, from some 117,000 miles over Mars’ equator to roughly the same height, but over the planet’s poles.
The craft will be progressively lowered over the next week, when it is to sweep as low as 125-155 miles from the surface – allowing Mars Express to use its powerful radar to search for signs of water or ice on the planet during expected two years of surveying.
Officials also consider Mars Express their best chance to find the British-built Beagle, since their radios have been tested together and shown to link up.
“The probability of communications is 100 times higher than having Mars Odyssey try,” von Weyhe said, adding that “the probability of finding Beagle from Earth is very low.”
While Beagle’s silence has worried the mission team, Mars Express’ flight has gone smoothly, with the spacecraft making the tricky entry into Martian orbit flawlessly on Christmas Day.
The mission, launched from Kazakhstan atop a Russian booster rocket June 2, is intended to look for signs of past or present life on Mars, which scientists think may once have had enough water to sustain living organisms. Mars Express also will map the surface with a high-resolution camera and relay data from Beagle, if it is found.
The 143-pound Beagle, if it reached the surface intact, is to sample soil and rocks with a mechanical arm searching for indications of organic matter.
Facts About Europe’s Mars Mission
Facts about the Beagle 2 Mars lander and the Mars Express orbiter, the two spacecraft in Europe’s first mission to seeks signs of life on the planet:
– EXPERIMENTS: Beagle has a robotic arm to take soil and rock samples, including a grinder to clean weathered surfaces and a drill to probe inside rocks. Also can heat samples and detect carbon dioxide. Two stereo cameras to provide 3-D image of surroundings. Other equipment will analyze composition of rocks, a range of sensors will detect Martian weather.
The high-resolution camera of Mars Express will map the planet’s surface and mineral composition. Powerful radar to look for signs of underground water. Data relay for Beagle.
– SIZE AND WEIGHT: Without heat shield and outer shell for entry into Martian atmosphere, Beagle 2 is about 26 inches across – the size of an average bicycle wheel. With solar panels unfurled, it expands to about 75 inches. Weighs 143 pounds.
The longest side of the boxlike Mars Express is 5.9 feet. It has two wing-like solar panels. Weighs some 249 pounds.
– PROJECT COST: Europe’s first Mars mission cost $370 million, considered relatively cheap.
– DURATION: Mars Express is expected to orbit for at least a Martian year, or 687 Earth days.
Past Mars Missions
A chronology of some past missions to Mars. Of 34 unmanned American, Soviet and Russian missions to the planet since 1960, two-thirds have ended in failure.
– Mariner 4, U.S.: July, 14, 1965. First successful Mars flyby, returning 21 pictures.
– Mariner 9, U.S.: Orbited Mars from Nov. 13, 1971 to Oct. 27, 1972, returning 7,329 photos.
– Mars 3, U.S.S.R.: Made the first successful landing on the surface on Dec. 3, 1971, and camera began to scan. But contact lost after 20 seconds and no images obtained.
– Mars 6 and 7, U.S.S.R: Two landers failed to reach the surface in March 1974.
– Viking 1, U.S.: Obited June 1976-1980, lander operated from July 1976-1982.
– Viking 2, U.S.: Orbited August 1976-1987, lander operated September 1976-1980. Together the two Vikings returned more than 50,000 pictures.
– Mars Observer, U.S.: Launched in September 1992 on mission to orbit Mars. Lost in August 1893 just before arrival.
– Mars Global Surveyor, U.S.: Began orbiting September 1997, still conducting mission of mapping surface.
– Mars Pathfinder, U.S.: Rover landed on surface on July 4, 1997, moving on surface and transmitting data until Sept. 27, 1997.
– Nozomi (Planet-B), Japan: Launched July 1998 on mission to orbit Mars. Failed to leave Sun’s orbit and abandoned on Dec. 3, 2003.
– Mars Climate Orbiter, U.S.: Launched December 1998, lost September 1999.
– Mars Polar Lander/Deep Space 2, U.S.: Launched January 1999 on mission to land probe to study Martian south pole. Lost on arrival December 1999.
– Mars Odyssey, U.S.: Launched April 2001, currently orbiting Mars and conducting mapping mission.
– Opportunity and Spirit, U.S.: Two rovers, launched in June and July 2003, scheduled to arrive in January and land on opposite sides of Mars.
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