WASHINGTON -- Members of the European Space Agency (ESA) effort, Mars Express, have inspected their "exit ramp" on the road to the Red Planet.
Mars Express project and industrial teams trekked to Kazakhstan a few weeks ago, eyeing the Baikonur cosmodrome where Mars Express will depart on a Soyuz-Fregat rocket in June 2003. The spacecraft is to orbit Mars starting in late 2003.
The advance party also visited the Soyuz manufacturing plant in Samara, an industrial town on the banks of the Volga River.
Worrisome issues
Rudi Schmidt, Mars Express project manager, said the inspection team wanted to assess the support and infrastructure required for readying Europe's Mars Express for launch. "The facilities look very good, but transport is the problem. If you forget something and have to bring it in from Europe, you have a logistical problem," Schmidt said.
With just two scheduled flights per week from Moscow to Baikonur, any spacecraft parts problems that crop up could mean Mars Express teams can expect bouts of nail biting. Chartering a plane to bring in equipment or people on a rush basis is one potential solution.
Another worrisome issue is any delay at customs when entering Russia and at the Russian/Kazakh border. That can add up to considerable delay times, for people and hardware, noted members of the advance team.
Overall, the facilities visited were judged impressive and capable of supporting the Mars Express preparations. The campaign to ready spacecraft and booster will begin in mid-March 2003, about three months before launch.
Marsward
Once boosted spaceward courtesy of the Soyuz-Fregat rocket, Mars Express arrives at the planet's doorstep in late 2003.
Just five days prior to reaching Mars, the orbiter will deploy the British-built Beagle 2 lander.
Mars Express will continue moving round its orbit about the red planet, regularly adjusting its position for observations and communications, for at least one Martian year, 687 Earth days. That is the nominal mission length, but the spacecraft is designed for a potential mission extension up to two Martian years.
Along with detailed exploration of Mars' surface, the Mars Express is to survey the Martian moon, Phobos. The tiny innermost moon of Mars -- just 14 miles (22 kilometers) in diameter -- will be viewed by Mars Express a few hundred times during its two-year nominal mission lifetime. The spacecraft should return spectacular and detailed views of Phobos, whisking by at about 1,900 miles (3,000 kilometers) distance.
Faster, better, cheaper
Mars Express mimics in spirit and intent NASA's faster, better, cheaper approach to spacecraft missions. If successful, methods honed in putting the spacecraft and mission together are to be applied to other types of ESA space science projects.
Mars Express is being built and launched for about half the cost of previous, similar missions. Maximum use is being made of pre-existing technology that is either "off-the-shelf" or has already been developed for Rosetta, an interplanetary mission also due for launch in 2003, but on an Ariane 5 booster.
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