Mars Express is a mission to explore Mars conducted by the European Space Agency (ESA). Launched in 2003 and still in operation, the Mars Express mission is the first planetary mission attempted by the agency. “Express” refers to the speed with which the spacecraft was built and at the same time, to the spacecraft’s relatively short interplanetary voyage, a result of being launched when the orbits of Earth and Mars brought them closer than they had been in about 60,000 years.

The italian Contribution
On board Mars Express, among the scientific instruments, two have italian PIs: MARSIS (Sub-Surface Sounding Radar Altimeter) and PFS (Planetary Fourier Spectrometer) realized with the contribution of NASA/JPL.
Among other italian contributions, VNIR, the visible part of the spectrometer OMEGA (with a French PI) and the electronics of the imaging instrument of energetic neutral atoms ASPERA.

In these webpage you will find information abot Mars Express, about MARSIS and about PFS.

Click below to know more about Mars Express, PFS and Marsis by images: