Mars Express will track the Phoenix robot landed on Mars

At NASA's request, the Mars Mars Express European probe will track NASA's Phoenix robot landing at the surface of Mars. The Phoenix robot is expected to be launched on August 4 after being delayed for 24 hours and will land on the 'red planet' in the spring of 2008. The mission of the robot is to study the Mars environment and track the trail. Traces of life on this planet.

Mars Express will track the flight, down and landing stages (EDL, Entry Descent and Landing) of Phoenix. The most dangerous flight time, lasting about 13 minutes. During this time, the robot will transmit a series of information continuously to two NASA satellites in orbit around Mars.

According to Fred Jansen leading the Mars Express mission of the European Space Agency (ESA), among Mars Express ship equipment, the Mars Express Lander Communications system (MELACOM) is designed to communicate with visiting robots. probe on the surface of Mars. Mars Express not only communicated with Phoenix during the EDL phase, but also tracked robots in the next phase of the mission expected to last 90 days.

NASA also has two other exploration robots operating on the surface of Mars. When Phoenix met them in mid-2008, more data would be sent back to Earth.

In addition to requesting support in the EDL phase, NASA also asked ESA to track the launch of Phoenix robots from the ground, at the Kourou station, French Guiana.

(Photo: NASA)