ESA to Deploy Mars Express Radar

fenimor writes "Mars Express was launched on 2 June 2003 and reached the planet on 25 December 2003. After eight months of intensive computer simulations and technical investigations the European Space Agency has given the green light for the MARSIS radar on board Mars Express spacecraft to be deployed during the first week of May. Assuming that this operation is successful, the radar will finally start the search for subsurface water reservoirs and studies of the Martian ionosphere."

Comments

Re:This is why we need a manned mission!

[yotto]

I'm willing to bet the cost will be very similar...

And you'd lose. Keeping people alive in space is EXPENSIVE. They need air, food, a place to poop, things to keep them occupied for months so they don't go nuts, exercise equipment...

We can send a couple hundred (or less) kilogram probe to Mars on the most cost-efficient multiyear route. To send a couple hundred kilogram human, you'd need to send tons and tons of extra mass just to keep him alive, and you'd need to use a very cost-inefficient trajectory to get him there as quickly as possible, which means tons and tons of fuel.

Then you gotta get them back.

pic

[essreenim]

Here's a picture of the ^antenna^