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.

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.

pic

[essreenim]

Here's a picture of the ^antenna^