Michael West’s Blog

That’s right! The ESA spacecraft, Mars Express, currently in orbit around Mars will be doing a series of close fly-bys of Mars’ moon Phobos. On July 23rd it will make its closest approach at an altitude above Phobos’ surface of only 97km. I can’t wait to see the close up shots with the High Resolution Stereo Camera and the results from the other instruments aboard Mars Express - these should give some insight into the mass, surface composition and geochemistry of this unusual solar system object.

The full press release from ESA’s website is below…

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That’s right! The Canberra Deep Space Communications Complex, just south of Canberra at Tidbinbilla, was the first of the three NASA Deep Space Network tracking stations to receive the first images from the Mars Phoenix Lander that arrived at Mars North Pole earlier today. You can read about it here on the ABC’s news site and hear an interview with Glen Nagle, a friend of mine, who is also the Public Relations manager at CDSCC here. Well done to everyone out at Tidbinbilla on another great job! If it wasn’t a working day I would have been out there watching it live in the Visitor’s Centre as I did a few years ago when the second of the Mars Exploration Rovers landed.

The Mars Phoenix Lander arrived safely at Mars’ North Pole earlier this morning and here are some of the first images it just sent back. WOW!! I can’t wait for the colour ones