[ExI] Asteroid on track for possible (probability of 1:25) Mars hit

[Amara Graps]

Samantha:
>Great mission and site!  What is the altitude of Mars Express?  I
>didn't see that factoid.

Mars Express Orbit details
http://www.rssd.esa.int/index.php?project=MARSEXPRESS&page=orbit
The apocenter altitude is 13448 km from Mars' center

More facts about the Mars Express mission
http://www.esa.int/esaSC/SEMTV8374OD_0_spk.html
http://www.planetary.org/explore/topics/mars_express/

The array of instruments are performing flawlessly, but what people
might remember most, are the camera images. This simple one here,
taken a few years ago, knocked everyone's socks off:
http://www.esa.int/esa-mmg/mmg.pl?b=b&type=I&mission=Mars%20Express&single=y&start=58

The resolution and details of typical Mars Express HRSC images
are jaw-droppers, and set new standards, for example: 
http://www.esa.int/esa-mmg/mmg.pl?b=b&type=I&mission=Mars%20Express&single=y&start=55 


Nothing else came close until NASA's MRO mission, HiRISE  instrument,
so with these two Mars observing instruments, the state of the art for
planetary surface imaging hardware and software ratcheted up a few
notches.

If folks here haven't heard of Mars Express, then they might not have
heard of Venus Express, either. Venus Express is a mission that used
spare parts and the spacecraft bus from the Mars Express mission.

Venus Express:
http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/area/index.cfm?fareaid=64
http://www.planetary.org/explore/topics/space_missions/venus_express/

Amara

-- 

Amara Graps, PhD      www.amara.com
Research Scientist, Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), Boulder, Colorado