Mars Express science highlights and future plans

Dmitrij V. Titov (1) , Jean-Pierre Bibring (2) , Alejandro Cardesin (3) , Thomas Duxbury (4) , François Forget (5) , Marco Giuranna (6) , Francisco Gonzalez-Galindo (7) , Mats Holmström (8) , Ralf Jaumann (9) , Anni Määttänen (10) , Patrick Martin (3) , Franck Montmessin (10) , Roberto Orosei (11) , Martin Pätzold (12) , Jeffrey J. Plaut (13)

1 ESTEC - European Space Research and Technology Centre
2 IAS - Institut d'astrophysique spatiale
3 ESAC - European Space Astronomy Centre
4 George Mason University [Fairfax]
5 LMD - Laboratoire de Météorologie Dynamique (UMR 8539)
6 IAPS - Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali - INAF
7 IAA - Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía
8 IRF - Swedish Institute of Space Physics [Kiruna]
9 DLR - Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt [Berlin]
10 PLANETO - LATMOS
11 IRA - Istituto di Radioastronomia [Bologna]
12 RIU - Rheinisches Institut für Umweltforschung
13 JPL - Jet Propulsion Laboratory

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.

Domaines: Planète et Univers [physics]

Dmitrij V. Titov, Jean-Pierre Bibring, Alejandro Cardesin, Thomas Duxbury, François Forget, et al.. Mars Express science highlights and future plans. European Planetary Science Congress 2019, Sep 2019, Geneva, Switzerland. pp.EPSC-DPS2019-190-1. ⟨insu-03015333⟩