[Space] ESA - Mars Express Mission - Update thread

[GioFX]

Explaining the colors of Mars

EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY NEWS RELEASE
Posted: February 22, 2004


Martian polar ice cap viewed in 'normal' visible light. Credit: ESA

How do you display a picture of Mars taken with an electronic eye, capable of seeing wavelengths of light that are invisible to humans? Welcome to the wonderful world of 'false' color...

The first trio of images from the OMEGA instrument on ESA's Mars Express, released on January 23, showed some colorful views of Mars' south polar ice cap. That is mainly because two of the images were taken at infrared wavelengths that defy easy translation into color. So, they were displayed in 'false' color.

William Smith, the British 'father' of geology, introduced false color to science in the 1800s. He wanted to draw a map of Great Britain to show the different types of rock that could be found across its surface and decided to color code the rocks.

The colors were not intended to represent the true colors of the rocks, but simply to act as a key to identifying them. Political maps of the world also use of false color, clearly showing the boundaries between countries because of the sudden change of color.


OMEGA observed the southern polar cap of Mars on January 18, as seen on all three bands. The right one represents the visible image, the middle one the CO2 (carbon dioxide) ice and the left one the H2O (water) ice. Credits: ESA - OMEGA

The OMEGA images here show a visible light image of the Martian south pole (far right). This is a traditional combination of red, blue and green wavelengths that all computers and televisions use to make full-color images.

The other two images, the middle one showing the distribution of carbon dioxide ice and the left-hand image showing the distribution of water ice are falsely colored.

Both ice images are made from infrared radiation reflected by the surface of Mars. Because carbon dioxide and water absorb and reflect characteristically different wavelengths of infrared, OMEGA can identify each chemical compound by looking at the missing parts of the spectra received back from the surface.

The astronomers then used false color to show how much ice had been detected at the polar cap. The color scale is blue to red. The bluer the area, the more carbon dioxide ice in the middle image and, in the left-hand image, the more water ice. Red areas are deficient and yellow areas are intermediate zones.

Comparing the pictures, the wide yellow expanse on the left-hand image shows that the water ice is more widespread than the carbon dioxide ice. The carbon dioxide ice collects mostly in the blue peak of the middle image.

With this early success, OMEGA's Principal Investigator Dr Jean-Pierre Bibring, Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale, France, is looking forward to the rest of mission. He says, "Our goal now is to map the whole planet."

So, as William Smith's 1815 map of Great Britain helped show the mineral wealth of England, Wales and Scotland, so OMEGA will eventually show the distribution of minerals and rock types across the surface of Mars. Like its predecessor, it too will be presented in glorious 'false' color.

[gpc]

Ma non l'avevo gia' postata io?

[GioFX]

Originariamente inviato da gpc
Ma non l'avevo gia' postata io?

Beh, è l'odierna interpretazione della news da parte di SDC... credo, è la stessa?

[gpc]

Originariamente inviato da GioFX
Beh, è l'odierna interpretazione della news da parte di SDC... credo, è la stessa?

Identica dalla prima all'ultima parola


Allora non leggi i miei post

[GioFX]

Originariamente inviato da gpc
Identica dalla prima all'ultima parola

ops...

Allora non leggi i miei post

ma no, è che ho la testa altrove di sti tempi, scusa...

[gpc]

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Exp...X32PGQD_0.html

ESA prepares for next missions to Mars



25 February 2004
Before humans can leave footprints on the surface of Mars, many questions have to be answered and many problems solved. One of the most fundamental questions is whether life has ever existed on Mars.

In its long-term Aurora Programme of Solar System exploration, ESA is preparing a series of robotic missions that will reveal the Red Planet’s secrets and pave the way for future human expeditions.
A major step in this ambitious programme was completed this week with the selection of two industrial teams to carry out the detailed design of the ExoMars rover and its payload of scientific instruments called 'Pasteur'.

These teams will be responsible for producing a detailed design concept for the rover, the first vehicle of its kind to be built by ESA. ExoMars will be ESA’s first mission to carry 'exobiology' instruments, meaning they are specifically designed to search for life.

Over the next few months ESA scientists will define a multi-instrument package that will be able to carry out a number of key tasks. It should be able to drill into the surface, retrieve and analyse samples, study the physical environment and look for evidence of biomarkers – clear signs that life has existed on Mars in the past, or even survives to the present day.

ExoMars, which is scheduled for launch in 2009, will include an orbiter and a descent module that will land a highly mobile rover, weighing up to 200 kilogrammes, on the surface of Mars. After delivery of the lander and rover, the orbiter will operate as a data relay satellite between the Earth and the vehicle on the surface.

The main aim of the rover and its state-of-the-art Pasteur payload will be to search for signs of life, past or present, on the Red Planet. Pasteur will be the most comprehensive scientific package ever to land on Mars, with tools that can extract, handle and analyse samples of Martian soil.

Its unique capability to obtain underground samples at depths of up to two metres will provide an excellent opportunity to gain access to ice-rich soil layers - and possibly the first definitive evidence of primitive Martian life.

[gpc]

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Exp...0Z1PGQD_0.html

Making light work of the dark

24 February 2004
It is the start of eclipse season for Mars Express. That means unavoidable passages of the spacecraft through the shadow of Mars, cutting it off from the sunlight that is converted into electrical power by the orbiter’s solar arrays.

This creates a nervous time for engineers at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany. Mars Express, however, is making light of this challenging part of the mission.

Mars Express orbits the Red Planet in a fixed direction that never changes. As Mars follows its own orbit around the Sun, there are times when Mars Express will be forced into the planet’s shadow. When this happens, the spacecraft must rely on battery power alone to keep it alive.


“So far things are going very well,” says John Reddy of ESA’s Mars Express project team. It is viewpoint shared by Rudolf Schmidt, Mars Express Project Manager. He says, “We have a graph predicting what will happen and, so far, the spacecraft has returned data that match our calculations.”
Mars Express completes one orbit of Mars every 7.5 hours. On 12 February 2004, the spacecraft experienced its first expected eclipse. That one lasted for only a few minutes but, as the days go by, the periods of darkness will rise to a full hour and a half early in March. After this, although the duration of the eclipses will slowly decrease, they will continue for about 150 days.


Away from sunlight, the spacecraft gets very cold and so it must be heated, draining the power reserves. When the spacecraft re-emerges, controllers on Earth must align it to recharge the batteries, otherwise all power could be lost during the next eclipse and critical damage could occur.


ESOC is in contact with Mars Express for just eight hours every day and so everything must be meticulously planned in advance and the spacecraft carefully programmed with the necessary manoeuvres.

And what of science during this testing time? At first, it was placed on hold so that the health of the spacecraft could be paramount. Now, with added confidence, science operations are beginning to be performed again. “It is our intention to perform as much safe science as we can during this period,” says Reddy.

Although Mars Express will experience other eclipse seasons during its mission, they are not likely to as trying as this one.



(nota: l'immagine di questo articolo è un filmato flash, per vederlo seguite il link all'articolo)

[gpc]

Water at Martian south pole


17 March 2004
Thanks to ESA’s Mars Express, we now know that Mars has vast fields of perennial water ice, stretching out from the south pole of the Red Planet.

Astronomers have known for years that Mars possessed polar ice caps, but early attempts at chemical analysis suggested only that the northern cap could be composed of water ice, and the southern cap was thought to be carbon dioxide ice.
Recent space missions then suggested that the southern ice cap, existing all year round, could be a mixture of water and carbon dioxide. But only with Mars Express have scientists been able to confirm directly for the first time that water ice is present at the south pole too.




OMEGA view of Martian south pole, showing water ice areas (blue)
Mars Express made observations with its OMEGA instrument to measure the amounts of sunlight and heat reflected from the Martian polar region. When planetary scientists analysed the data, it clearly showed that, as well as carbon dioxide ice, water ice was present too.

The results showed that hundreds of square kilometres of ‘permafrost’ surround the south pole. Permafrost is water ice, mixed into the soil of Mars, and frozen to the hardness of solid rock by the low Martian temperatures. This is the reason why water ice has been hidden from detection until now - because the soil with which it is mixed cannot reflect light easily and so it appears dark.


However, OMEGA looked at the surface with infrared eyes and, being sensitive to heat, clearly picked up the signature of water ice. The discovery hints that perhaps there are much larger quantities of water ice all over Mars than previously thought.

Using this data, planetary scientists now know that the south polar region of Mars can be split into three separate parts. Part one is the bright polar cap itself, a mixture of 85% highly reflective carbon dioxide ice and 15% water ice.





HRSC partial view of Martian south pole where OMEGA found water ice
The second part comprises steep slopes known as ‘scarps’, made almost entirely of water ice, that fall away from the polar cap to the surrounding plains. The third part was unexpected and encompasses the vast permafrost fields that stretch for tens of kilometres away from the scarps.

The OMEGA observations were made between 18 January and 11 February this year, when it was late summer for the Martian southern hemisphere and temperatures would be at their highest. Even so, that is probably only –130 degrees Celsius and the ice that Mars Express has observed is a permanent feature of this location.

During the winter months, scientists expect that carbon dioxide from the atmosphere will freeze onto the poles, making them much larger and covering some of the water ice from view.

Mars Express and OMEGA will now continue looking for water ice and minerals across the surface of the planet. In May, another Mars Express instrument, the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding (MARSIS), will begin collecting data, looking for water underground.

It will be particularly exciting when MARSIS looks at the south pole because, once planetary scientists know how deep the ice reaches, they will be able to calculate exactly how much water there is. Knowing this is very important to understand how Mars evolved and if it ever harboured life.



Map of the Mars south pole, as derived from OMEGA infrared spectral images, showing the bright polar cap, rich in carbon dioxide (light pink), surrounded by water-rich ice, free of carbon dioxide (green to blue).

Credits: ESA-OMEGA



Global map of water ice at the south pole of Mars. Mapping of the water ice; blue areas show deep absorption, i.e. areas with water ice, red areas are ice-free. The water ice areas extend far beyond the carbon dioxide rich bright cap, along its scarps up to isolated units tens of kilometres wide.

Credits: ESA-OMEGA



A partial (visible) view of the Martian south polar ice cap, taken on 11 February 2004 during orbit 103 by the High Resolution Stereo Camera on Mars Express, from an altitude of 269 kilometres light. The south pole is where the OMEGA instrument made its significant discovery, with the steep slopes known as ‘scarps’ made almost entirely of water ice, falling away from the polar cap to the surrounding plains, and the permafrost fields that stretch for tens of kilometres away from the scarps.

Credits: ESA/DLR/FU

[gpc]

22 March 2004
This nadir (vertical view) image was taken during orbit 68 by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on Mars Express, from an altitude of 271 kilometres. This anaglyph image has been calculated from the nadir and stereo channels.
The image is centred at 7.9 degrees North and 255.5 degrees East and shows a portion of the southern flank of Ascraeus Mons, the northernmost volcano of the Tharsis volcano group. North is at the right.

The peculiar depressions which can be observed here, and on several Martian volcanoes, are so-called 'lava tubes'. Lava tubes are caused by the crusting (or cooled lava) which occurs over a lava channel, a covering making the channel into a tunnel. When lava production ceases, the tunnel empties and the roof of the tunnel falls in, making an elongated depression.

Occasionally, the depression forms a chain of small pits over an emptied lava tunnel. Pit chains and lava tunnels are common on the Martian surface and are also seen on other terrestrial planets and the Moon.

Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)



22 March 2004
This colour nadir (vertical view) image was taken during orbit 68 by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on Mars Express, from an altitude of 271 kilometres.
The image is centred at 7.9 degrees North and 255.5 degrees East and shows a portion of the southern flank of Ascraeus Mons, the northernmost volcano of the Tharsis volcano group. North is at the right.

The lighter, 'pink' areas on the colour image are clouds. The peculiar depressions which can be observed here, and on several Martian volcanoes, are so-called 'lava tubes'. Lava tubes are caused by the crusting (or cooled lava) which occurs over a lava channel, a covering making the channel into a tunnel. When lava production ceases, the tunnel empties and the roof of the tunnel falls in, making an elongated depression.

Occasionally, the depression forms a chain of small pits over an emptied lava tunnel. Pit chains and lava tunnels are common on the Martian surface and are also seen on other terrestrial planets and the Moon.

Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)



22 March 2004
This nadir (vertical view) image was taken during orbit 68 by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on Mars Express, from an altitude of 271 kilometres. This is how the image looks like before final processing and colour channel addition.
The image is centred at 7.9 degrees North and 255.5 degrees East and shows a portion of the southern flank of Ascraeus Mons, the northernmost volcano of the Tharsis volcano group. North is at the right.

The lighter shaded, 'wispy' areas (lighter pink in the colour image) at the left and right of the image are clouds. The peculiar depressions which can be observed on several Martian volcanoes are so-called 'lava tubes'. Lava tubes are caused by the crusting (or cooled lava) which occurs over a lava channel, a covering making the channel into a tunnel. When lava production ceases, the tunnel empties and the roof of the tunnel falls in, making an elongated depression.

Occasionally, the depression forms a chain of small pits over an emptied lava tunnel. Pit chains and lava tunnels are common on the Martian surface and are also seen on other terrestrial planets and the Moon.

Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)

-------------------

Qui l'articolo con i link alle immagini ad alta risoluzione: http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Exp...NJYV1SD_1.html

[GioFX]

[GioFX]

Probe confirms methane in the Martian atmosphere

EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY NEWS RELEASE
Posted: March 30, 2004

During recent observations from the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft in orbit around Mars, methane was detected in its atmosphere.

Whilst it is too early to draw any conclusions on its origin, exciting as they may be, scientists are thinking about the next steps to take in order to understand more.


This colour image of the Hecates Tholus volcano was taken by the High Resolution Stereo Camera on Mars Express in orbit 32 on from an altitude of 275 km. Credits: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G. Neukum)

From the time of its arrival at Mars, the Mars Express spacecraft started producing stunning results. One of the aims of the mission is analysing in detail the chemical composition of the Martian atmosphere, known to consist of 95% percent carbon dioxide plus 5% of minor constituents. It is also from these minor constituents, which scientists expect to be oxygen, water, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde and methane, that we may get important information on the evolution of the planet and possible implications for the presence of past or present life.

The presence of methane has been confirmed thanks to the observations of the Planetary Fourier Spectrometer (PFS) on board Mars Express during the past few weeks. This instrument is able to detect the presence of particular molecules by analysing their "spectral fingerprints" - the specific way each molecule absorbs the sunlight it receives.

The measurements confirm so far that the amount of methane is very small - about 10 parts in a thousand million, so its production process is probably small. However, the exciting question "where does this methane come from?" remains.

Methane, unless it is continuously produced by a source, only survives in the Martian atmosphere for a few hundreds of years because it quickly oxidises to form water and carbon dioxide, both present in the Martian atmosphere. So, there must be a mechanism that refills the atmosphere with methane.

"The first thing to understand is how exactly the methane is distributed in the Martian atmosphere," says Vittorio Formisano, Principal Investigator for the PFS instrument. "Since the methane presence is so small, we need to take more measurements. Only then we will have enough data to make a statistical analysis and understand whether there are regions of the atmosphere where methane is more concentrated."

Once this is done, scientists will try to establish a link between the planet-wide distribution of methane and possible atmospheric or surface processes that may produce it. "Based on our experience on Earth, the methane production could be linked to volcanic or hydro-thermal activity on Mars. The High Resolution Stereo camera (HRSC) on Mars Express could help us identify visible activity, if it exists, on the surface of the planet", continues Formisano. Clearly, if it was the case, this would imply a very important consequence, as present volcanic activity had never been detected so far on Mars.

Other hypotheses could also be considered. On Earth, methane is a by-product of biological activity, such as fermentation. "If we have to exclude the volcanic hypothesis, we could still consider the possibility of life," concludes Formisano.

"In the next few weeks, the PFS and other instruments on-board Mars Express will continue gathering data on the Martian atmosphere, and by then we will be able to draw a more precise picture," says Agustin Chicarro, ESA Mars Express Project Scientist.

Thanks to the PFS instrument, scientists are also gathering precious data about isotopes in atmospheric molecules such as water and carbon dioxide - very important to understand how the planet was formed and to add clues on the atmospheric escape. The PFS also gives important hints about water-cloud formation on the top of volcanoes, and shows the presence of active photochemical processes in the atmosphere.

[maxsona]

Originariamente inviato da GioFX

[jumpermax]

ragazzi la questione del metano mi sembra davvero grossa... il metano non dura a lungo nell'atmosfera marziana quindi ci deve essere una fonte sul pianeta... quale?

http://www.universetoday.com/am/publ...s.html?3032004
What's Creating the Methane, Life or Volcanoes?

Summary - (Mar 30, 2004) Scientists consider the discovery of methane in the Martian atmosphere to be one of the strongest indicators of habitable conditions for life. Methane can be produced through both biological and non-biological processes, but it degrades very quickly - it should disappear within 300 years in the Martian atmosphere. So what's producing it? The last period of volcanism seems to be millions of years ago (Olympus Mons was active 100 million years ago). That's doesn't necessarily mean life, though. There could still be volcanic vents gassing methane which haven't been discovered.

Full Story -
Image credit: ESA
Considered suggestive of life, an atmosphere of methane on another planet is considered one of the four best candidates for detecting habitable conditions using remote sensing and telescope spectrographs. While methane can be made both by biological and non-biological processes, it is also degraded by non-biological means, so a high concentration often is interpreted as requiring a source to replenish it. If metabolism is that source, then some of the prerequisites for a steady-state ecosystem may be in play.

On Earth there are four gases linked to the presence of life and habitable conditions: water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane and molecular oxygen (O2, or its proxy, ozone O3). Water is essential to all biology we understand today, while the exchange of carbon dioxide and oxygen constitute the collective respirator for photosynthesis and breathable worlds. The dominant gas on Mars today is by far carbon dioxide.

With methane, there are some methanogenic organisms that require consumption of this gas for their subsistence. Methanogenesis converts carbon dioxide to methane. Since strong chemical reactions quickly destroy (oxidize) methane at the Martian surface, if methane is found today, there must be some replenishment that gives a clue to active biology. Such biosynthesis leaves a ubiquitous signature of life even in specimens where there are no fossils visible.

Michael J. Mumma of Goddard Space Flight Center first reported in a poster at a recent planetary conference [DPS] that his preliminary search for methane with both of two ground-based infrared telescopes had found something interesting. His survey turned up intriguing signs of what may be methane's spectral line in the Martian atmosphere.

These hints have now been confirmed by the European orbiter, Mars Express. Using an instrument called the Planetary Fourier Spectrometer (PFS), the work reported in Nature magazine identified the characteristic spectral fingerprint of methane. "We have detected methane at concentrations of ten parts per billion," said Vittorio Formisano of the Institute of Physics of Interplanetary Space in Rome and the principal investigator in the PFS team.

The current martian atmosphere is 99% thinner than the Earth's. The surface temperature averages -64 F (-53 C), but varies between 200 below zero during polar nights to 80 F (27 C) at midday peaks near the equator. The global picture of Mars is sometimes compared terrestrially to Antarctic dry regions, only colder.

Carbon, nitrogen and methane would be the gaseous precursors to what would be required to sustain or transform Mars from its current inhospitable state to a warmer, microbe-friendly planet. Because researchers believe that methane can persist in the Martian atmosphere for less than 300 years, any methane they find can be assumed to arise from recent biological processes, produced, for example, by methane-producing bacteria. This close link gives methne its less scientific name of swamp gas.

The European Mars Express mission is capable of detecting methane in the martian atmosphere. As Agustin Chicarro, Mars Express Project Scientist said, these "investigations will provide clues as to why the north of the planet is so smooth and the south so rugged, how the Tharsis and Elysium mounds were lifted up and whether active volcanoes exist on Mars today."

There are some problems with trying to understand the history of methane and other greenhouse gases on Mars. There is no evidence on Mars of large limestone deposits from the first billion years, which would be directly linked to large amounts of C02, a greenhouse gas.

Methane -- which can be created naturally by volcanic eruptions or produced by primitive life -- thus may be a missing piece of the puzzle to finding out if organic remnants might once have sustained a primordial Mars. The last period of active volcanism on Mars is well before the last 300 years that methane can survive in the martian atmosphere of today. University of Buffalo volcanologist, Tracy Gregg, told Astrobiology Magazine, "the youngest surficial activity discovered to date (and it's probably 1 million years old, which would be considered quite young, and possibly "active" on Mars) is in a region that contains no large volcanic structures of any kind." Mars' gigantic volcano Mons Olympus was active until 100 million years ago.

Earlier observations had speculated on methane concentrations as high as 50-70 parts per million, not what Mars Express detected as ten parts per billion. This low level could not likely sustain a global pattern suggestive of a biosphere, but might support local ecologies if methane has some underground source. Whatever the final concentration might be, its appearance in such an unstable atmosphere has taken on importance to unravel the mysteries of a martian biosphere. The most frequently mentioned example of a martian methane economy centers on a deep biosphere of methane rich biochemistry, or anerobic methanogens.

[fabio69]

Originariamente inviato da jumpermax
ragazzi la questione del metano mi sembra davvero grossa... il metano non dura a lungo nell'atmosfera marziana quindi ci deve essere una fonte sul pianeta... quale?

grossa?
dieci parti per miliardo?

"Earlier observations had speculated on methane concentrations as high as 50-70 parts per million, not what Mars Express detected as ten parts per billion. This low level could not likely sustain a global pattern suggestive of a biosphere, but might support local ecologies if methane has some underground source. Whatever the final concentration might be, its appearance in such an unstable atmosphere has taken on importance to unravel the mysteries of a martian biosphere. The most frequently mentioned example of a martian methane economy centers on a deep biosphere of methane rich biochemistry, or anerobic methanogens."

mi sembra l'ennesima "scoperta" irrilevante

[jumpermax]

Originariamente inviato da fabio69
grossa?
dieci parti per miliardo?

"Earlier observations had speculated on methane concentrations as high as 50-70 parts per million, not what Mars Express detected as ten parts per billion. This low level could not likely sustain a global pattern suggestive of a biosphere, but might support local ecologies if methane has some underground source. Whatever the final concentration might be, its appearance in such an unstable atmosphere has taken on importance to unravel the mysteries of a martian biosphere. The most frequently mentioned example of a martian methane economy centers on a deep biosphere of methane rich biochemistry, or anerobic methanogens."

mi sembra l'ennesima "scoperta" irrilevante

grossa sì. Perchè non può essere residuo della passata attività vulcanica dato che si dissolve in tempi geologicamente brevi. Per cui deve esserci una fonte sul pianeta...

[GioFX]

2 o 3cento anni non sono neanche tempi geologici...

cmq mi sa che fabio ne se più di tutti gli scenziati, in effetti ha ragione... è del tutto inutile studiare l'universo.

[jumpermax]

Originariamente inviato da GioFX
2 o 3cento anni non sono neanche tempi geologici...

cmq mi sa che fabio ne se più di tutti gli scenziati, in effetti ha ragione... è del tutto inutile studiare l'universo.

beh allo stato attuale delle cose non si sa molto. Può benissimo essere il frutto di una debole attività geologica o di bombardamento meteoritico, insomma ci può essere più di una spiegazione, ma la sonda del resto è lì proprio per questo... le risposte ancora non le abbiamo

[gpc]

Madooooo anche qui a stuzzicarvi...

Su Space.com dicevano che le spiegazioni per il metano, che è comunque una grande scoperta, possono essere diverse: dal meteorite contenente metano a residui di attività geologica, ma non è escluso che l'origine sia biologica, ovvero prodotto di batteri, anche se è una ipotesi abbastanza improbabile.

[GioFX]

.

[GioFX]

ESA:

Mars Express radar deployment postponed

29 April 2004
The MARSIS team has advised ESA to delay the deployment of the MARSIS radar instrument on board Mars Express, scheduled for this week.

New and improved computer models suggest that, during deployment, the radar booms may swing back and forth with larger amplitudes than previously expected. If this happened, the booms might come too close to delicate components of the spacecraft body. Further simulations and tests are under way to better understand the situation.

The two main radar booms are 20-metre long hollow cylinders, of 2.5 centimetres diameter, folded up in a box like a concertina (accordion). When the box is opened, the elastic energy of the compressed glass-fibre booms will let them unfold like a jack-in-the-box.


After the booms spring out, they will eventually lock in a straight line, taking up the shape that they had before being folded into the box. The deployment procedure of each boom is expected to last about 10 minutes.


Simulations carried out four years ago by the radar boom's manufacturer, Astro Aerospace, California, USA, indicated that the deployment should be smooth, without significantly swinging back and forth. However, the radar team has now advised ESA that a new and refined analysis of the boom dynamics indicates that a sort of "backlash" might take place before the boom locks into its position.

Although a successful deployment is not in question, Mars Express mission managers want to make sure that the booms are not subjected to excessive mechanical stress and that they do not interfere with the spacecraft as they deploy.
The MARSIS team and their industrial contractors are now performing further tests and simulations to confirm that the deployment will have no impact on the safety of the spacecraft. These simulations will then be reviewed by ESA's experts. Based on the results, expected within a few weeks, ESA will decide when and how to activate MARSIS.

MARSIS will study the sub-surface of Mars to a depth of a few kilometres. The instrument's antennas will send radio waves towards the planet and analyse how they are reflected by any surface that they encounter. In this way, MARSIS can investigate the sub-surface mineralogical composition and will reveal the presence of any underground reservoir of water or ice.