The european Mars Express mission, which was launched on 2 June 2003, is providing important new data on the geology, mineralogy and atmosphere of Mars. Mars Express is giving us information about the history of the Red Planet’s climate and explaining the role and whereabouts of water on the planet. Thanks to the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) developed in DLR's Institute of Planetary Research, Mars is being mapped in three dimensions and colour for the first time.
Join us on a trip to our planetary neighbour. See breathtakingly beautiful pictures of its surface. Find out more about its geology, climatic history and moons, and learn about the history of its exploration.
A wealth of information about Mars, its surface, subsurface and atmosphere has led to a completely new view of the Red Planet.
This animation shows a flight over the region of the Chasmata Melas, Candor and Ophir in the central part of Valles Marineris. 'Chasma' (= Greek for "fissure/canyon", plural 'chasmata') refers to deep valleys and canyons on Mars and Venus bound by steep cliff faces.
The images shown in this gallery were generated at the Institute for Geological Sciences at the Freie Universität Berlin and published there as 'Highlights of the Month' in 2011. They present special Mars products obtained using the HRSC camera on board Mars Express.
Nobody would have believed it back then; when the European Space Agency (ESA) spacecraft Mars Express was launched on 2 June 2003 to investigate our neighbouring planet, its mission was intended to last one Mars year, which is equivalent to about two Earth years.
Grabens, dendritic valleys, lava flows and the highest known mountain in the Solar System – in the images from the German stereo camera on board the Mars Express spacecraft, the topography of the Red Planet appears so three-dimensional that you could walk through it.
Huge landslides, lava flows and tectonic forces have generated the stunning landscape seen in these images acquired by the DLR-operated HRSC camera system on board the Mars Express spacecraft.