From Mars Express to ExoMars: Two missions working together around Mars

Abstract

This year 2018 is very important for the Mars scientific community in Europe since for the first time two missions of the European Space Agency coincide around the orbit of Mars, opening a great opportunity for collaboration to improve our understanding of our neighbour planet. The Mars Express mission is fully operational and has been providing great amounts of data since its arrival at Mars in Christmas 2003, covering a wide range of science objectives from the surface and sub-surface geology, atmosphere dynamics and composition, up to the interaction with the magnetosphere and the characterization of the Martian system including Phobos and Deimos. The ExoMars 2016 Trace Gas Orbiter mission arrived successfully at Mars in October 2016 and after the first calibration observations in the initial capture orbit and the long aerobraking phase of more than 12 months, the mission started its operational science phase in April 2018 aiming to fulfill the scientific goals of the mission: atmospheric trace gases, climatology, surface geology and subsurface ice detection. In this contribution we provide a short summary of each mission and their mission profiles, with the characteristics of each orbit and their differences that drive the observation capabilities. We will then focus on the synergistic capabilities between all the instruments and the observations that can be combined to improve the scientific outcome of both missions. In particular we will show the preparations done by the science operations centers at ESAC and the work within the Science Ground Segments for the long term analysis of the geometrical conditions of both missions to perform coordinated science operations. We will provide details on the science opportunity analysis process, using various operational tools inherited from previous planetary missions to perform geometrical and operational simulations of both spacecraft, taking into account the observation requirements of all the instruments and the operational requirements for feasibility checks.