Mars Express Surpasses 5000 Orbit Milestone

On Christmas, 2003, the European Space Agency launched their first Mars explorer to the Red Planet. Four years later, Mars Express continues to send back images and other data. Today, the spacecraft surpassed another milestone as it completed its 5000th orbit of Mars. The orbiter has revolutionized our knowledge of the planet, probing every facet in unprecedented detail. The most astonishing visual results have been returned by the High-Resolution Stereo Camera, which has produced incredible, 3D color images of the Martian surface. Other instruments have been examining different aspects of the planet's environment. One of the most significant findings has been that of clay by the Visible and Infrared Mineralogical Mapping Spectrometer OMEGA. At the poles, OMEGA has measured the composition of the surface. The Martian poles have been further investigated using the Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding, MARSIS. MARSIS has been revealing, for the first time, the secrets of Mars' subsurface. The Planetary Fourier Spectrometer (PFS) has formed the most complete map to date of the chemical composition of the atmosphere around Mars. The Ultraviolet and Infrared Atmospheric Spectrometer has provided the first complete vertical profile of the carbon dioxide density and temperature of the atmosphere. The Energetic Atoms Analyzer has confirmed that solar wind is slowly stripping atoms from the atmosphere. The mission has been extended to at least 2009 and there is a large possibility of further extensions into the next decade.

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