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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 …

Mars express orbit design

Hechler, M.; Yanez, A.

This paper gives a survey of the orbit design, mission analysis aspects for Mars Express, the ESA mission to Mars. The emphasis is on those features which are unconventional. These are: the launch window with only 9 flight programs on the Fregat launcher upper stage for 30 launch days, and the re-targeting and Planetary protection strategy during …