> PRESS RELEASE
> Date Released: Wednesday, July 02, 2003
> European Space Agency
>
> ESA’s Mars Express First Check-out Nearly Complete
>
> ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft is progressing further
> every day on its
> journey to the Red Planet. Everything is set for
> arrival at Mars on the
> night of 25 December 2003, after a journey of about
> 400 million kilometres.
> In the weeks since its launch, engineers have
> started to thoroughly test the
> spacecraft and its equipment.
>
> This testing phase is standard for all spacecraft on
> the way to their
> destination. Known as commissioning, it began 3
> weeks after the launch.
> During this time, ground controllers sent signals to
> each of the orbiter's
> seven instruments to switch them on and verify their
> health status. As well
> as commissioning the instruments, the ground
> controllers also tested each of
> the spacecraft’s subsystems. There was a thrilling
> moment when one of the
> on-board computer memory units, known as the Solid
> State Mass Memory (SSMM),
> seemed to not respond properly during the
> instruments check-out. Good
> progress has been made on this issue in the last few
> days: a test involving
> all instruments was completed successfully by
> recording and recovering the
> data through the SSMM.
>
> Unfortunately, during the commissioning of the power
> subsystem, ground
> engineers recorded an interconnection problem
> between the solar arrays and
> the power conditioning unit on board the spacecraft.
> This means
> approximately 70% of the power generated by the
> solar arrays is available
> for the satellite and its payload to use. This
> anomaly has no effect on the
> state of the spacecraft and has no impact on the
> mission during the whole
> trip to Mars, including the orbit insertion phase
> once at destination.
>
> Despite this, the experts analysing the anomaly
> believe that even with this
> power shortage, the nominal Mars observation mission
> will be achievable.
> However, satellite payload operations may have to be
> reviewed for certain
> short periods of the mission.
>
> Ground engineers are now preparing for the last of
> the payload’s tests: the
> Beagle-2 lander will undergo its check-out on 4-5
> July 2003. The experts are
> looking confidently to it. "In fact," says Rudolf
> Schmidt, Mars Express
> Project Manager, "overall, the spacecraft is in good
> shape. We are simply
> getting to know its personality."
>
>
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