[3] However, "Express" also describes 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.

Although the lander failed to fully deploy after it landed on the Martian surface, the orbiter has been successfully performing scientific measurements since early 2004, namely, high-resolution imaging and mineralogical mapping of the surface, radar sounding of the subsurface structure down to the permafrost, precise determination of the atmospheric circulation and composition, and study of the interaction of the atmosphere with the interplanetary medium.

The design of Mars Express is based on ESA's Rosetta mission, on which a considerable sum was spent on development.

The same design was also used for ESA's Venus Express mission in order to increase reliability and reduce development cost and time.

All of the instruments take measurements of the surface, atmosphere and interplanetary media, from the main spacecraft in polar orbit, which will allow it to gradually cover the whole planet.

In the years preceding the launch of a spacecraft numerous teams of experts distributed over the contributing companies and organisations prepared the space and ground segments.

All the different experts had to work together in an operational environment and the interaction and interfaces between all elements of the system (software, hardware and human) had to run smoothly for this to happen: The spacecraft was launched on June 2, 2003, at 23:45 local time (17:45 UT, 1:45 p.m. EDT) from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, using a Soyuz-FG/Fregat rocket.

The Mars Express was the first Russian-launched probe to successfully make it out of low Earth orbit since the Soviet Union fell.

The Near Earth commissioning phase extended from the separation of the spacecraft from the launcher upper stage until the completion of the initial check out of the orbiter and payload.

It included the solar array deployment, the initial attitude acquisition, the declamping of the Beagle-2 spin-up mechanism, the injection error correction manoeuvre and the first commissioning of the spacecraft and payload (final commissioning of payload took place after Mars Orbit Insertion).

On December 20 Mars Express fired a short thruster burst to put it into position to orbit the planet.

The deployment of the booms was a critical and highly complex task requiring effective inter-agency cooperation ESA, NASA, industry and public universities.

He was required to recruit a suitable team of engineers that could handle the varying tasks involved in the mission.

The Mars Express orbiter is a cube-shaped spacecraft with two solar panel wings extending from opposite sides.

Two 20 m long wire dipole antennas extend from opposite side faces perpendicular to the solar panels as part of the radar sounder.

[12][13] During routine phase, the spacecraft's power consumption is in the range of 450–550 W.[14] Attitude control (3-axis stabilization) is achieved using two 3-axis inertial measurement units, a set of two star cameras and two Sun sensors, gyroscopes, accelerometers, and four 12 N·m·s reaction wheels.

Three on-board systems help Mars Express maintain a very precise pointing accuracy, which is essential to allow the spacecraft to use some of the science instruments.

The low gain antennas are used during launch and early operations to Mars and for eventual contingencies once in orbit.

In addition, further agreements with NASA Deep Space Network have made possible the use of American stations for nominal mission planning, thus increasing complexity but with a clear positive impact in scientific returns.

On the technical side, it has been made possible (among other reasons) thanks to the adoption of both Agencies of the Standards for Space Communications defined in CCSDS.

[16] The primary purpose of the AI tool is the scheduling of when to download various parts of the collected scientific data back to Earth, a process which used to take ground controllers a significant amount of time.

[16][17] The Beagle 2 lander objectives were to characterize the landing site geology, mineralogy, and geochemistry, the physical properties of the atmosphere and surface layers, collect data on Martian meteorology and climatology, and search for possible signatures of life on Mars.

A Commission of Inquiry on Beagle 2[10] identified several possible causes, including airbag problems, severe shocks to the lander's electronics which had not been simulated adequately before launch, and problems with parts of the landing system colliding; but was unable to reach any firm conclusions.

The HRSC camera has been consistently mapping the Martian surface with unprecedented resolution and has acquired multiple images.