February 13, 2004
NASA and
ESA Form Communications Network Around Mars
NASA today announced that a pioneering
demonstration of communications between the Mars Exploration
Rover Spirit and the European Space Agency Mars Express orbiter
was successful.
On February 6, while Mars Express was flying
over the area Spirit was examining, the orbiter transferred commands
from Earth to the rover and relayed data from the robotic explorer
back to Earth.
"This is the first time we have had
an in-orbit communication between European Space Agency and NASA
spacecraft, and also the first working international communications
network around another planet," Rudolf Schmidt, the European
Space Agency's project manager for Mars Express, said. "Both
are significant achievements, two more 'firsts' for Mars Express
and the Mars Exploration Rovers."
Diagram of the Mars Communication
Network
Click
for larger image
Courtesy NASA/JPL
Jennifer Trosper, Spirit mission manager
at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., said,
"We have an international interplanetary communications
network established at Mars."
The European Space Agency and NASA planned
this demonstration as part of continuing efforts to cooperate
in space and to enable plans to use joint communications assets
to support future missions to the surface of Mars.
The commands for the rover were transferred
from Spirit's operations team at JPL to the European Space Operations
Centre in Darmstadt, Germany, where they were translated into
commands for Mars Express.
The translated commands were transmitted
to Mars Express, which used them to successfully command Spirit.
Spirit used its ultra-high frequency antenna to transmit telemetry
information to Mars Express. The orbiter relayed the data back
to JPL, via the European Space Operations Centre.
"This is excellent news," Richard
Horttor, project manager for NASA's work with Mars Express, said.
"The communication sessions were pristine. Not a single
bit of data was missing or added, and there were no duplications."
This exercise demonstrated the increased
flexibility and capabilities of interagency cooperation and highlighted
the spirit of close support essential in undertaking international
space exploration.
Spirit and its twin Mars Exploration Rover,
Opportunity, frequently use two NASA orbiters, Mars Odyssey and
Mars Global Surveyor, for relaying communications. The rovers
also can communicate directly with the Earth-based antennas of
NASA's Deep Space Network in California, Spain and Australia,
another layer of international cooperation.
JPL, a division of the California Institute
of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Exploration Rover
Project and NASA participation in Mars Express for NASA's Office
of Space Science, Washington, D.C.
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