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Mars Express And Beagle 2 In Final Prep For Mars Arrival
Paris - Dec 25, 2003 At 09:30 CET today [0830 UTC], the Mars Express orbiter was 200,000 kilometres from Mars and 156,000,000 kilometres from Earth. The orbiter is on its final planned course for Mars Orbit Insertion (MOI). The spacecraft will hit its intended MOI 'bull's eye' point, 414 kilometres above the Martian surface, to within an accuracy of six kilometres. The retargeting manoeuvre performed by ESOC Mission Control on Saturday, 20 December, was so accurate that the additional 'fine-tuning' manoeuvre scheduled for 23 December was judged to be unnecessary and not performed. Mission Control is currently placing the spacecraft in its final configuration for MOI. The fuel tanks are being heated and the latch valves checked in preparation for a 34-minute main engine burn, due to place the spacecraft into Martian orbit in the early hours of Christmas morning. All non-essential equipment is currently being turned off to minimise the zpossibility of the spacecraft entering 'safe mode'. This process is due to conclude around 12:00 CET [1100 UTC] when the spacecraft's Solid State Mass Memory is switched off. No further commands are due to be sent to Mars Express until after MOI. Flight Director Michael McKay said, "From this point the tension really starts to grow. We don't have a lot more to do except watch and wait. The time within which we can do something reduces very rapidly. "But if anything unexpected does occur then we would be ready to jump in and recover the situation, applying all the professionalism and skill of the ESA and industrial teams gathered here at ESOC Mission Control." Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links Mars Express Beagle 2 Lander SpaceDaily Search SpaceDaily Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express Mars News and Information at MarsDaily.com Lunar Dreams and more
Spirit Heading To 'Home Plate'
Pasadena CA (JPL) Jan 09, 2006Last week Spirit completed robotic-arm work on "El Dorado." The rover used all three of its spectrometers plus the microscopic imager for readings over the New Year's weekend. |
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