June 15, 2023: Each image travelled about 300 million kilometres. Is this a new expedition to research on the Red Planet? Here is everything you need to know about it.
The European Space Agency effectively carried out the first-ever video live feed from Mars. The video feed was transmitted by Europe's Mars Express when it was transiting around the Red Planet and arrived on Earth a short while later.
Each image travelled about 300 million kilometres to Earth, and it took roughly 17 minutes for it to do so, plus an additional minute for the ground stations. Rainy conditions at the deep space-relay transmitter in Spain, however, occasionally interfered with the broadcast.
The Visual Monitoring Camera (VMC), which is currently serving as the investigation's webcam, was onboard Mars Express when the pictures were taken.
As the spaceship circled Mars, the first pictures progressively became larger until they only showed roughly a third of the planet. In several of the images, it was easy to make out white clouds.
Mars Express has been circling the Red Planet for a period of twenty years, and a video live feed was conducted to commemorate this significant milestone.
"Mars Express has outlasted, performed better than expected, and in fact beyond expectations. Mars Express has endured five times longer than it was intended to, making it quite elderly in human years, according to a statement from the European Space Agency.
In a statement, the European Space Agency quoted, "Mars Express has outlived, outperformed, and indeed surpassed expectations. In human years, Mars Express would now be very old, having survived five times longer than it was designed for.”
According to Simon Wood, the mission's spacecraft operations engineer, when the spaceship's antenna can be aimed in this direction, images and other data are often saved inside and then communicated to Earth. The agency cited recent live footage of spacecraft purposefully smashing into the moon and an asteroid, as well as the live transmissions of the Apollo moonwalkers more than 50 years ago.
The mission of the spacecraft, which was launched on June 2, 2003, was to research the Red Planet's geology, temperature, and atmospheric conditions in order to learn more about its past and ability to support life. The planet's water ice has been found both above and below the surface with the help of the spacecraft's radar sensor, MARSIS.
At least until 2026, the expedition will keep exploring Mars.
A lander named Beagle-2 that was part of the Mars Express mission to the red planet lost communication with Earth as it made an attempt to land there. Beagle-2 was photographed by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter more than ten years later. The lander reached the surface, but its solar panels didn't completely extend.