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| Ferrari red paint passes road test for trip to Mars |
| The symbol of Ferrari's extraordinary success, its red paint 'Rosso Corsa', has been given the green light to go into space, as it was declared officially 'space qualified' at a formal ceremony held today at INTESPACE in Toulouse, France. A specially constructed glass globe, known as FRED, containing the sample of paint was then integrated on to the Mars Express spacecraft, in readiness for the fastest journey Ferrari has ever made. |
| Date: 18 Sep 2002 |
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| ESA PR 59-2002 See Mars Express before its departure to the Red Planet |
| Mars Express, to be launched in May-June 2003 on its six-month journey to Mars, is presently being put through a test campaign at INTESPACE, Toulouse, France. The spacecraft, which will be undertaking Europe's first mission to the Red Planet, is to be presented at a special press event being held in Toulouse on 18 September. |
| Date: 05 Sep 2002 |
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| Timing is critical as launch windows approach |
| There will be greater tension than usual among engineers and scientists at Europe's spaceport at Kourou, French Guiana, in January 2003, as they gather to see ESA's comet-chasing spacecraft Rosetta departing on its long journey. If it is to keep its rendezvous with Comet Wirtanen in 2012, Rosetta must lift off on its Ariane-5 launcher no sooner than 03:40 CET on 13 January 2003 and no later than the end of that month. |
| Date: 05 Sep 2002 |
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| No place for life to hide from Mars Express |
| Of all missions sent to Mars only one, the Viking 26 years ago, has dared to search for life. Its only conclusive result was that finding proof of extraterrestrial life proved to be much harder than expected. Second attempts never followed. Until now. ESA's Mars Express, the next mission to the Red Planet and the first European one, has an ambitious goal. To be launched in 2003, Mars Express will be the first spacecraft after Viking to search for direct and indirect evidence for past or present life on Mars. This time, scientists are equipped with more knowledge and insight in how to detect Martian life. The chances of success look very good. |
| Date: 03 Sep 2002 |
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| ESA INFO 7-2002 Ferrari red paint competes for an extraordinary qualification |
| Ferrari has recently faced some tough challenges on the racetrack, but achieving the qualifications that will allow its famous red paint 'Rosso Corsa' to go into space is another story altogether. |
| Date: 20 Aug 2002 |
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| No bugs please, this is a clean planet! |
| When packing for a trip towards another planet, there are some things, such as microorganisms, that you do not want to include in your 'luggage'. For example, what if extraterrestial life is finally detected on Mars, and scientists realise afterwards that such life is actually terrestrial? |
| Date: 30 Jul 2002 |
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| ESA PR 52-2002 A little bit of Ferrari takes off to the Red Planet! |
| What is the fastest Ferrari's distinctive red paint has ever travelled? Next year it will be 10800 km/h! Mars Express, to be launched in May/June 2003, the first European spacecraft to visit the Red Planet, will be speeding on its way accompanied by the very essence of Ferrari: a sample of its distinctive red paint. |
| Date: 21 Jul 2002 |
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| And now the weather ... on Mars! |
| Blinding dust storms can seriously ruin your plans for a landing on Mars. ESA is adapting the global climate models that we use to forecast our weather on Earth for the turbulent conditions that Mars offers its future visitors. |
| Date: 03 Jul 2002 |
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| Mars Express has the sophisticated science to find the water ice on Mars |
| "The presence of such a large amount of water ice under Mars's surface is very surprising. Especially so close to the surface!" says Gerhard Schwehm, Head of the Planetary Missions Division at ESA. The team working on ESA's Mars Express, the next mission to the Red Planet, is thrilled by NASA's Mars Odyssey detection of hydrogen-rich layers under the Martian surface. This hydrogen indicates the presence of water ice in the top surface of the Martian soil in a large region surrounding the planet's south pole. ESA's Mars Express, ready for launching in June 2003, has the tools for searching much deeper below the surface, down to a few kilometres. |
| Date: 30 May 2002 |
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| Martian spots warrant a close look |
| Are dark spots that appear near the south pole of Mars in early spring, a sign of life on the Red Planet? No-one can say for sure, according to a group of scientists who met at ESTEC, ESA's technical centre in the Netherlands. But the spots are certainly fascinating, the meeting agreed, and well worth a detailed look by Mars Express, the European Space Agency's Mars mission, when it goes into orbit around the Red Planet in late 2003. |
| Date: 13 Mar 2002 |
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| 'Dummy' news: 'A small planet with dramatic landscapes' |
| Mars is a smallish planet, its radius is just a little over half the Earth's. Yet it boasts scenery on a scale that makes Mount Everest and the Grand Canyon seem puny by comparison. |
| Date: 06 Mar 2002 |
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| 2003 missions will go to Mars with Christmas spirit |
| In two year's time, the planet Mars will receive a Christmas present from planet
Earth - a flotilla of spacecraft. Gifts from different nations, the spacecraft will
share communications channels to solve a problem which will intensify as Mars
exploration gathers pace: how to relay the data gathered by so many missions
back to Earth.
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| Date: 21 Dec 2001 |
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| Mars Express strikes a musical note |
| Listen to the soundtrack accompanying this movie and you may think it reminiscent of some avant-garde music. The sound is, in fact, representative of the vibration the Mars Express spacecraft will experience during launch. |
| Date: 02 Nov 2001 |
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| Europeans get the bug to go to Mars |
| The Mars Society, the US-born group lobbying for the human exploration of Mars, is expanding into Europe. |
| Date: 08 Oct 2001 |
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| A sample from Mars? A topic for discussion at the Meteoritical Society Meeting in Rome |
| By studying lunar samples meteoriticists have contributed hugely to our understanding of the Moon. A sample-return mission to Mars would provide the community with a rich resource with which to investigate our nearest neighbour.
But when will there be a such a mission? A meeting to be held in Rome will provide the meteoritical community with an opportunity to express their interest in a sample-return mission to Mars. |
| Date: 03 Sep 2001 |
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| Mars Express spacecraft testing begins |
| The structural model of the Mars Express spacecraft arrived at Intespace, Toulouse on 29 August to begin its first system level test campaign. During this six-week campaign, the spacecraft will be subjected to mechanical qualification tests to ensure the integrity of the structure during launch. |
| Date: 30 Aug 2001 |
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| Europe to identify underground water on Mars |
| Geologists poring over the latest images from Mars keep on turning up new and tantalising evidence that water once flowed freely on the planet's surface - and may still flow from time to time. If their interpretation is right, underground aquifers or ice layers should be commonplace on the planet. Yet no spacecraft flown so far has been capable of identifying them.
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| Date: 27 Aug 2001 |
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| Mars Express passes milestone with flying colours |
| As space engineers and scientists met last month for a final review of the Mars Express spacecraft design, the spacecraft itself was taking shape at the premises of Alenia, Torino, Italy. "Normally, we would have the critical design review (CDR) after tests of the spacecraft structural model (SM tests) have been completed. But because of the tight schedule for Mars Express, most of the review had to be completed early. We've done all the reviewing we can. A few items have to wait until after the SM tests," says Rudi Schmidt, Mars Express Project Manager. |
| Date: 10 Aug 2001 |
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| 2nd Announcement of Opportunity for the Mars Express mission |
| The European Space Agency solicits the participation of the scientific community in the Mars Express Orbiter and Lander Programme to further increase the scientific return of the selected investigations and of the mission as a whole, through this Announcement of Opportunity (AO).
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| Date: 23 Jun 2001 |
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| Mars Express team returns from reconnaissance mission to Baikonur |
| Members of the Mars Express project and industrial teams travelled to the steppes of Kazakhstan last month to inspect the Baikonur cosmodrome where Mars Express will be launched on board a Soyuz-Fregat rocket in June 2003. |
| Date: 20 Jun 2001 |
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