Kiruna, 2003-8-15
PRESS RELEASE
Swedish instrument ASPERA-3 on board Mars Express
is healthy and doing well!
Mars Express on its way to the red planet (Artist's
impression: ESA)
On 2 June the European Space Agency's spacecraft Mars Express was launched on a Soyuz-Fregat rocket from Baikonur in Kazakhstan. On board Mars Express is the Swedish instrument ASPERA-3, developed at the Swedish Institute of Space Physics (IRF) in Kiruna. After a six-month journey, ASPERA-3 together with six other instruments will orbit Mars for at least 687 days. The instrument will give information about how charged particles from the sun (the solar wind) influence the upper atmosphere of Mars.
All initial check-ups and operations during the first 3 months show that the Mars Express spacecraft is in good shape. The routine check-ups of the instruments and of the Beagle-2 lander on Mars Express, performed during recent weeks, have been very successful. Mars Express project scientist Agustin Chicarro says, "As in all space missions little problems have arisen, but they have been carefully evaluated and solved. Mars Express continues on its way to Mars performing beautifully".
Three weeks after the very successful launch the scientists and engineers at IRF in Kiruna began activation of the instrument. The long wait was required to let the spacecraft "outgas" and is normal procedure for operating instruments such as ASPERA-3. The first ASPERA-3 switch-on took place on 23 June when the instrument team came to ESOC (European Space Operation Center) in Darmstadt. The period of the near-Earth verification lasted until 25 July when the last test of the ASPERA-3 instrument was completed and the instrument was switched off until the next check-up period in October (the last check-up before the spacecraft is inserted into orbit round Mars in December). Says Professor Stas Barabash, IRF, Principal Investigator of ASPERA-3, "For those who have developed and built instruments the most nervous moment of a mission is the first switch-on and initial instrument operations. It is then we see for the first time how our 'baby' behaves itself in real life. ASPERA-3 behaved very well. All 5 sensors of the instrument are performing as expected".
On 20-22 August some 30 scientists and engineers (from Europe, USA, and Japan) who are involved in the ASPERA-3 experiment will gather in Kiruna to discuss the results of the first period of operations. A copy of the ASPERA-3 instrument, ASPERA-4, will fly to Venus on-board the ESA Venus Express mission in November 2005, so the team will also discuss the development of the ASPERA-4 experiment. Appropriately, the meeting will take place near the period of the unique Mars opposition. On 27 August the distance between Mars and Earth will be at its shortest for the last 50,000 years. The scientists plan to view the planet by telescope from the roof of IRF on the night of 21 August.
The media is welcome to interview participants at the meeting and to attend a dinner and the Mars viewing on 21 August. Please contact Rick McGregor (see below) by 5 p.m. on Monday 18 August if you wish to attend.
For more information:
Professor Stas Barabash, Principal Investigator ASPERA-3, tel. 0980-79122, stas.barabash@irf.se
Rick McGregor, Information Officer, IRF, tel. 0980-79178, 070-276 6020, rick.mcgregor@irf.se
Web pages:
IRF: www.irf.se, www.irf.se/press/MEX.html
ESA: www.esa.int/science/marsexpress, www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Express
Webmaster@irf.se
2003-08-15