Mars Express Looks at its Target

[Lionel]

Europe's first solo mission to another planet, Mars Express, has taken its first image of the Red Planet. The picture was captured when the probe was about 5.5 million kilometres away. Mars Express is nearing its destination after a six-month voyage from Earth and is due to go into orbit around the fourth planet on Christmas Day. By then, it will have released the tiny British lander, Beagle 2, which will drop down on to the surface of Mars to look for signs of past or present life. The European Space Agency orbiter gives a perspective on Mars quite different from those captured by Earth-bound telescopes. The dark areas at the top of the planet are part of the northern lowlands of Mars. The terrain is pitted with huge boulders, volcanic deposits and wind-blown dust sculptures. Oceans may have existed here thousands of millions of years ago. The High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board Mars Express took the picture.

The first dedicated stereo camera to have flown on a planetary mission, it will study the entire planet in unprecedented detail, taking full colour images in 3D. The HRSC science team is led by Principal Investigator, Professor Gerhard Neukum, of the Free University of Berlin, Germany.

View: Full Article | Source: BBC News