ESA Mars Express

Mars Express is a space exploration mission being conducted by the European Space Agency (ESA). The Mars Express mission is exploring the planet Mars, and is the first planetary mission attempted by the agency. Mars Express consists of two parts, the Mars Express Orbiter and the Beagle 2, a lander designed to perform exobiology (searching for extra-terrestrial life) and geochemistry (chemistry of the planet's crust) research. Although the lander failed to land safely on the Martian surface, the Orbiter has been successfully performing scientific measurements since early 2004, in particular high-resolution imaging of the surface. New high definition pictures taken by the Mars Express Orbiter have just been released (one is shown above). The picture shows an ancient, 22 mile wide (35 km) impact crater, most likely eroded by flowing water. Click here to visit the ESA website to see more pictures and find out more information.