Fostering Curiosity: Mars Express relays rocky images

image For the first time, ESA's Mars orbiter has relayed scientific data from NASA's Curiosity rover on the Red Planet's surface. The data included detailed images of "Rocknest3" and were received by ESA's deep-space antenna in Australia.


Early on the morning of 6 October, ESA's Mars Express looked down as it orbited the planet, lining up its lander communication antenna to point at Curiosity far below on the surface.

For 15 minutes, the NASA rover transmitted scientific data up to the ESA satellite. A few hours later, Mars Express slewed to point its high-gain antenna toward Earth and began downlinking the precious information to the European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany, via the Agency's 35 m-diameter antenna in New Norcia, Australia.



ChemCam comprises the camera together with a Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectrometer, which fires a laser at targets and analyses the chemical composition of the vaporised material.

The laser zaps areas smaller than 1 mm across on the surface of martian rocks and soils, and then the spectrometer provides information on the minerals and microstructures in the rocks.

Outstanding image quality




ChemCam laser targets




Fostering Curiosity - and others

ESA's Mars orbiter has also relayed data for NASA's other surface missions - Phoenix, Spirit and Opportunity - since 2004, and it relayed Curiosity's radio signal during its arrival at Mars last August.



Interplanetary cooperation

"ESA-NASA cooperation at Mars is a continuing success, and comes after both sides have worked diligently for a number of years to set technical and engineering standards to enable sharing data between spacecraft, networks and ground stations," says Mars Express Spacecraft Operations Manager Michel Denis.

"Exploring Mars is a huge challenge, and space agencies are working to boost cooperation and mutual support for current and upcoming missions. It's the way of the future."

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