Tag Archives: ESA

HRSC: A chaos found only on Mars

The cracked, uneven, jumbled landscape seen in this image from ESA’s Mars Express forms an intriguing type of terrain that cannot be found on Earth: chaotic terrain. The feature visible here, Aurorae Chaos, is located in the ancient and equatorial … Continue reading

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HiRISE: Landing in Oxia Palus

This image shows a cratered area to the southeast of the ExoMars 2020 Rosalind Franklin rover landing site at Oxia Palus. Selecting and characterizing landing sites is a balance between having science targets and avoiding potential obstacles, and HiRISE is … Continue reading

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Radiation showstopper for Mars exploration?

An astronaut on a mission to Mars could receive radiation doses up to 700 times higher than on our planet – a major showstopper for the safe exploration of our Solar System. A team of European experts is working with … Continue reading

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ESA: Mars on Earth — what next?

A Mars Sample Return campaign would bring samples of the Red Planet back to Earth for examination in the best terrestrial laboratories – but choosing the samples and storing them on Mars for later return is only one part of … Continue reading

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ESA prepares for ExoMars rover operations

[From Emily Lakdawalla’s blog at the Planetary Society] Preparations for the ExoMars rover mission are in their final stages. ESA made two announcements today: ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter is shifting orbit, and they officially opened a new Rover Operations Control … Continue reading

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ExoMars orbiter preps orbit for ExoMars rover

On 15 June, the ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) will follow a different path. An ‘Inclination Change Manoeuvre’ will put the spacecraft in an altered orbit, enabling it to pick up crucial status signals from the ExoMars rover, Rosalind … Continue reading

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10 things you didn’t know about Mars

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Europe to Mars — and back!

Europe has been in orbit around Mars for more than 15 years and is almost a year away from launching its first rover mission, but ambitions are already running high to go one step further: returning a sample from the … Continue reading

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ExoMars rover PanCam filter set

This may look like a collection of colourful contact lenses and in some respects there are some similarities: these are the filters through which the ExoMars rover – Rosalind Franklin – will view Mars in visible and near infrared wavelengths. … Continue reading

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Hunting for biosignatures in volcanic rocks

[Editor’s note: From a paper by Magnus Ivarsson, Therese Sallstedt, and Diana-Thean Carlsson recently published in Frontiers in Earth Science.] Morphological Biosignatures in Volcanic Rocks – Applications for Life Detection on Mars The exploration of Mars is largely based on comparisons with … Continue reading

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