A new image to contemplate Mars, "as never seen before" and with unprecedented colours, has marked the 20th anniversary of the European Space Agency's (ESA) Mars Express mission orbiting the red planet. A test of resistance, since the two years foreseen are already two decades.
ESA has offered today, for one hour on its YouTube channel, images of the planet, one every 50 seconds, broadcast live from the visual monitoring camera on board the Martian orbiter.
The new photograph released today is a mosaic of images revealing the planet's color and composition "in spectacular detail," made using data from the HRSC camera.
"In addition to its beauty, the mosaic provides fascinating information about the composition of Mars, revealing an unprecedented variety and detail of colors on its surface," highlights the ESA.
Mars is famous for its reddish color, caused by high levels of oxidized iron, but the new image reveals large parts of the planet that appear rather dark and bluish toned, due to grayish-black basaltic sands of volcanic origin, that form extensive layers of dark sand.
Water-weathered material tends to be lighter and the two most common are clay and sulphate minerals, which appear particularly bright in such colored compounds.
The presence of these minerals indicates that liquid water existed on Mars for a long time, eroding and altering rock over time to form significant clay deposits.
The sulfate minerals are visible, albeit covered by a thin layer of dark sand, but "their impressive color variations can be seen on closer inspection," the ESA explains.
HRSC normally photographs the surface of Mars from about 300 kilometers and the resulting images cover areas about 50 kilometers in diameter, but a slightly different approach has been used this time to get a broader view.
That camera is just one of the instruments of Mars Express, the mission that was launched 20 years ago today to Mars, a destination it reached on December 25, 2003.
The probe was to serve, orbiting Mars, for one Martian year (687 Earth days) to study its geology, climate and atmosphere, providing valuable data on its history and its potential to support life.
Its name, Mars Express, is not by chance, since it was built and launched in record time and at a much lower cost than previous similar missions, but two decades later "it has exceeded all expectations", acknowledges the ESA, which foresees to remain in service at least until the end of 2026.
Two decades translates into 1.1 billion kilometers traveled around Mars in more than 24,000 orbits, during which it has taken "stunning images of the Martian surface and changing weather patterns, revealing diverse landscapes, from mighty volcanoes to deep valleys and ancient riverbeds”.
The different instruments carried by the probe have played a "key role" in detecting water ice above and hidden below the planet's surface, and exposed water ice in the polar caps. Findings that have far-reaching implications.
The orbiter has also faced problems over the years, which have been resolved by experts, from mishaps with the wiring of the solar panels, to mass memory problems that caused the loss of its long-term memory storage capacity.
