May 4 2005
From The Space Library
After a delay of more than one year, ESA's Mars Express deployed the first of three booms that form the craft's Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS). The MARSIS booms would search for evidence of water under the surface of Mars. The deployment marked the beginning of a 10-day sequence, originally scheduled for April 2004. NASA's JPL had conducted an investigation that had warned of the possibility that one or more of the antenna components could swing back and hit the spacecraft, a risk that had caused ESA to delay the deployment. Although an ESA review board had concluded that, even if such an event were to occur, the risk of damaging Mars Express remained low, scientists had voiced concerns that a strike from any of the booms could damage delicate instruments on board the orbiter. According to Mars Express Mission Manager Fred Jansen, engineers had analyzed the problem over the past year to assure themselves that any existing risks would not affect the spacecraft. As deployment commenced, telemetry data indicated that the first boom, which formed half of MARSIS's primary antenna, had deployed successfully. ESA had scheduled the second half of the antenna to deploy four days later. (BBC News, “First Marsis Radar Boom Deployed,” 6 May 2005; Maggie McKee, “Mars Express To Deploy 'Divining Rod' at Last,” New Scientist, 4 May 2005.)
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