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Martian buildings: Feasible cement/concrete for onsite sustainable construction from the structural point of view
Soureshjani, Omid Karimzade; Massumi, Ali; Nouri, Gholamreza
Colonizing other planets, like Mars, marks a significant milestone in the pursuit of a multi-planetary existence. Millions of people would settle on Mars in self-sufficient bases. Colonizing Mars is a long-term mission that demands self-sufficient, secure habitats and comprehensive planning. Importing structures, such as inflatable structures, fro…
Prospecting in-situ resources for future crewed missions to Mars
Postberg, Frank; Poulet, François; Bishop, Janice L. +3 more
The installation of planetary and lunar human outposts might be an important step for future solar system exploration by both public space agencies and private companies. Humans living and working in these artificially created habitats will possibly depend, among other life support approaches, on bio-regenerative life support systems to produce an…
Data stream mining for predicting the thermal power consumption of the Mars Express spacecraft
Džeroski, Sašo; Kocev, Dragi; Stevanoski, Bozhidar +2 more
The Mars Express (MEX) spacecraft, operated by the European Space Agency (ESA), has been orbiting Mars for the past 18 years. During this period, it has provided unprecedented scientific data about the red planet, but it has also aged, and its batteries have degraded. Thus, MEX needs careful and accurate power modeling to continue its significant …
Southern Meridiani Planum - A candidate landing site for the first crewed mission to Mars
Smith, H.; Hobbs, S. W.; Clarke, J. D. A. +2 more
Astronauts working on the surface of Mars have the capability to explore efficiently, rapidly, and flexibly, allowing them to perform a wide range of field investigations. NASA has begun an open international process to identify and evaluate candidate locations where crews could land, live and work on the martian surface, beginning with the First …
An ordinary camera in an extraordinary location: Outreach with the Mars Webcam
Scuka, D.; Ormston, T.; Denis, M. +1 more
The European Space Agency's Mars Express mission was launched in 2003 and was Europe's first mission to Mars. On-board was a small camera designed to provide ‘visual telemetry’ of the separation of the Beagle-2 lander. After achieving its goal it was shut down while the primary science mission of Mars Express got underway. In 2007 this camera was …
Infusion of innovative technologies for mission operations
Donati, Alessandro
The Advanced Mission Concepts and Technologies Office (Mission Technologies Office, MTO for short) at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) of ESA is entrusted with research and development of innovative mission operations concepts systems and provides operations support to special projects. Visions of future missions and requests for improv…
The microbial case for Mars and its implication for human expeditions to Mars
Horneck, Gerda
Mars is considered as key target for the search of life beyond the Earth. As well as carbon based chemistry and an adequate energy source, water in liquid phase has been considered a prerequisite for habitability. By analogy with terrestrial extremophilic microbial communities, e.g., those thriving in arid, cold, salty environments and/or those ex…
The role of mud volcanoes in the evolution of Hecate Tholus Volcano on the surface of Mars
Kangi, Abas
Hecate Tholus Volcano has undergone numerous changes in its history of evolution. Further, the phenomena occurring on the surface of this volcano endow us with a remarkable perspective of recent martian geological changes. In the vicinity of this volcano cone, most of the lava is covered with a thick layer of loose sediments (probably clay). The p…
Mars Express-ESA's first mission to planet Mars
Schmidt, R.
ESA' Mars Express mission is a fully approved and funded project which has entered its spacecraft development (i.e. hardware) phase early January 2000. It is the first of ESA's new 'F' (flexible) missions which are based on a new implementation scenario to maintain overall mission cost below a stringent cost cap. The key features of an F-mission a…
Scientific objectives of the Beagle 2 lander
Pillinger, C. T.; Sims, M. R.; Wright, I. P.
Beagle 2 is the name given to the lander part of the ESA Mars Express mission (launch 2003). The main focus of Beagle 2 is to establish whether there is convincing evidence for past life on Mars, or to assess if the conditions were ever suitable. Beagle 2 also plans a globally responsive test to see if there is any present-day biological activity …