Jet Propulsion Laboratory JPL Earth JPL Solar System JPL Stars and Galaxies JPL Science and Technology Home Page Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology Mars Express NASA Home Page Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology Follow this link to skip to the main content
NASA logo, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology header separator
+ NASA Homepage
 
   
Mars Express
Overview Science Technology The Mission People Features Events Multimedia
Mars for Kids
Mars for Students
Mars for Educators
Mars for Press
+ Mars Home
+ Express Home
Multimedia
Summary
Images
bullet Spacecraft
bullet Mars Artwork
bullet Martian Terrain
Videos
Spacecraft
Return to Spacecraft index
This picture shows the Mars Express orbiter as a white, wavy, slanted streak centered against a vast, deep black background.  The lines of the spacecraft make it appear somewhat like a jagged, three-inch worm in space.
Full Res (16 kB)

Mars Express Seen by Mars Global Surveyor

This picture of the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft by the Mars Orbiter Camera on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor is from the first successful imaging of any spacecraft orbiting Mars by another spacecraft orbiting Mars. The picture is a composite of two views of Mars Express that Mars Orbiter Camera acquired on April 20, 2005, from distances of about 250 and 370 kilometers (155 and 229 miles).

Owing to the large distance between Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Express when the two views could be acquired and to a substantial cross-track component of apparent motion for which no correction could be made, Mars Express appears in the image as a narrow blur rather than as a well-defined spacecraft. It appears in the image to be about 1.5 meters in the small dimension and 15 meters in the long dimension, which is consistent with the viewing distance, pixel scale, and encounter geometry.


The components of Mars Express when viewed from the same angle as this image can be seen in an artist's rendition http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/figures/PIA07944_fig1.jpg and an annotated rendition http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/figures/PIA07944_fig2.jpg of the spacecraft.

Mars Express was launched on June 3, 2003, and reached Mars on Dec. 25, 2003. Mars Global Surveyor left Earth on Nov. 7, 1996, and arrived in Mars orbit on Sept. 12, 1997. JPL, a division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, manages Mars Global Surveyor for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washingon, D.C.

Credit: NASA/JPL/MSSS

JPL Image Use Policy

Credits Feedback Related Links Sitemap
first gov logo
footer NASA logo