Mars Express science highlights and future plans
Abstract
After 15 years in orbit Mars Express remains one of ESA’s most scientifically productive Solar System missions whose publication record now exceeds 1200 papers. Characterization of the geological processes on a local-to-regional scale by HRSC, OMEGA and partner experiments on NASA spacecraft has allowed constraining land-forming processes in space and time. Recent results suggest episodic geological activity as well as the presence of large bodies of liquid water in several provinces (e.g. Eridania Planum, Terra Chimeria) in the early and middle Amazonian epoch and formation of vast sedimentary plains north of the Hellas basin. Mars Express observations and experimental teams provided essential contribution to the selection of the Mars- 2020 landing sites and supporting characterization of potential landing sites for the Chinese HX-1 mission. Recent discovery by the subsurface radar MARSIS of subglacial liquid water underneath the Southern polar layered deposits has proven that the mission science potential is still not exhausted. The radar will continue searching for subsurface water pockets using its high resolution mode.
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