Tag Archives: European Space Agency

HRSC: A chaos found only on Mars

Posted on June 28, 2019 by rburnham

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

Posted on June 13, 2019 by rburnham

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?

Posted on June 3, 2019 by rburnham

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?

Posted on May 31, 2019 by rburnham

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

Posted on May 31, 2019 by rburnham

[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

Posted on May 30, 2019 by rburnham

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

Posted on May 28, 2019 by rburnham
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Europe to Mars — and back!

Posted on May 27, 2019 by rburnham

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

Posted on May 27, 2019 by rburnham

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

Posted on May 20, 2019 by rburnham

[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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