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

Antenna Boom

[teiresias]

After eight months of intensive computer simulations and technical investigations

if people are wondering why the decision took so long, besides commanding something on Mars, would be the loss or impairment of the antenna boom. Of course they have safeguards and workarounds but if that fails MARSIS is dead in the water. Good luck ESA.

Re:Antenna Boom

[Adrilla]

Of course they have safeguards and workarounds but if that fails MARSIS is dead in the water.

It'd have to find water first.

This is why we need a manned mission!

[FortKnox]

Honestly, this is why we need a manned mission to Mars. All these countless robots and satellites wouldn't be necessary if we just sent several men with testing equipment to stay there for a few months. Imagine how much more can be accomplished! Combine all the cost of all the landers and satellites to Mars and compare it to a manned mission. I'm willing to bet the cost will be very similar and more can be done in a shorter amount of time.[tt]

Re:This is why we need a manned mission!

[cnettel]

It may be true for rover activity, but I seriously doubt that orbital surveys, radar and photographic, would be done better by manned missions (in orbit?!). The communication and weather satellites around Earth are not manned and they do their job, giving significant information about our planet, which we wouldn't have by just staying on the surface and which would be quite dull to manage from orbit.

Even with an ambitious manned mission, the coverage of the planet would be "spotty". Automated studies give us the broader view.

Re:This is why we need a manned mission!

[Anonymous Coward]

You have to be joking. Even on Earth, remote sensing usually precedes on-ground human exploration, because it allows people to focus on the most likely targets for what ever is of interest. At the very least, people get a map before they head out into the field, which is exactly what probes such as Mars Express are doing. You have to know where to go before embarking on an expensive trip. Half the value of having robots on the surface, such as the MER tag-team Spirit and Opportunity, is being able to put their local, very focussed observations into a broader, global context.

It is also immensely cheaper and more efficient. Hell, the two MER robots have been on Mars for an entire year, and can keep going as long as they still receive solar energy at reasonable levels and nothing mechanical breaks. Humans are very high maintenance by comparison.

Humans will get there eventually, but there is no point in going yet without good baseline information.

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.

Sub-surface radar?

[Atlantis-Rising]

What's the effectiveness of sub-surface RADAR? I can't imagine you can get a good picture of something under a pile of rock from orbit.

Re:Sub-surface radar?

[prgrmr]

At 186,000 MPS, it's the strength of the signal, not the distance traveled, that matters. In this context, the distances from orbit are insignificant, and the depth of rock only somewhat less so. It's the echo from the water under the rock that's being returned to the sattelite, not imaging data.

Googling for info on earth orbiting radar platforms lead me to more info on earth orbiting radar sattelites that you'd ever need

Re:7 months !

[slungsolow]

Mars was in its closest orbit in 60,000 years when it launched, so it reached there in 7 months.

Hence the name "Mars Express".

Delay explained

[prgrmr]

From TFA:

follows eight months of intensive computer simulations and technical investigations on both sides of the Atlantic.

It's good to know they took the time to work out all the conversions to and from metric.

Speeding Martians

[Nom du Keyboard]

Those Martians better watch out. When radar is deployed, speeding tickets are soon to follow.

One Step At A Time I Think

[Galstaf]

It has proven difficult enough to keep people healthy and sane in Mir Space Station for any substantial period of time. Mir has proved that it is possible, but that's in a reletively large stationary object, not a spacecraft. The technology is certainly not with us for manned missions to Mars just yet and most of the lessons learned from Mir are with the Russians rather than NASA. I think NASA will need to do some long term studies of their own before committing anything other than chimps to the great beyond. Aside from the survival of the astronauts (whatever species they may be), I suspect we will have to get a great deal better at rocketry and robotics before manned missions are on the agenda.

pic

[essreenim]

Here's a picture of the ^antenna^

Re:I don't understand

[gabe824]

From TFA:

ESA's decision to deploy MARSIS follows eight months of intensive computer simulations and technical investigations on both sides of the Atlantic. These were to assess possible harmful boom configurations during deployment and to determine any effects on the spacecraft and its scientific instruments.
The three radar booms of MARSIS were initially to have been deployed in April 2004, towards the end of the Mars Express instrument commissioning phase. They consist of a pair of 20-metre hollow cylinders, each 2.5 centimetres in diameter, and a 7-metre boom. No satisfactory ground test of deployment in flight conditions was possible, so that verification of the booms' performance had to rely on computer simulation. Just prior to their scheduled release, improved computer simulations carried out by the manufacturer, Astro Aerospace (California), revealed the possibility of a whiplash effect before they locked in their final outstretched positions, so that they might hit the spacecraft.

The plan was to deploy the booms a year ago, but the manufacturer discovered that deploying the booms may damage the satellite, so the deployment was postponed. After nearly a year of looking at the problem, they have now decided that the possibility of damaging the satellite is small enough that they will proceed with the deployement.