page_title: Mars Express
section_title: 2007
hierarchical_section_title: Mars Express / Scientific discoveries and important events / 2007
caption_attribution_description: English: This image was taken by the HRSC instrument aboard Mars Express and shows the Martian moon Phobos.
context_page_description: Mars Express is a space exploration mission being conducted by the European Space Agency. The Mars Express mission is exploring the planet Mars, and is the first planetary mission attempted by the agency. "Express" originally referred to the speed and efficiency with which the spacecraft was designed and built. 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.
  Mars Express consists of two parts, the Mars Express Orbiter and Beagle 2, a lander designed to perform exobiology and geochemistry research. 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.
context_section_description: January
  First agreements with NASA undertaken for the support by Mars Express on the landing of the American lander Phoenix in May 2008.
  February
  The small camera VMC (used only once to monitor the lander ejection) was recommissioned and first steps were taken to offer students the possibility to participate in a campaign "Command Mars Express Spacecraft and take your own picture of Mars".
  February 23
  As result of the science return, the Science Program Committee (SPC) granted a mission extension until May 2009.
  June 28
  The High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) has produced images of key tectonic features in Aeolis Mensae.
caption: Greyscale view of Phobos over Mars, 2007
  ESA/DLR/FU Berlin
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