IT House reported on June 23 that after 19 years, the Mars Express orbiter of the European Space Agency’s Mars exploration satellite will usher in a software upgrade.Upgraded to better search for water under Mars and study its larger moon Phobos.
Launched on June 2, 2003, Mars Express originally consisted of two parts: the Mars Express orbiter and the Beagle 2 lander. Unfortunately, the lander lost contact with Earth after it was released and reached the surface of Mars. However,The orbiter is still working after 19 years in service, orbiting Mars.
Now, engineers at Italy’s National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) are upgrading the spacecraft’s software. The upgrade will allow the Mars Express orbiter to continue to use its MARSIS radio wave instrument to search for water locked down under the Martian surface and to more efficiently monitor the planet’s closest moon, Phobos.
Specifically, the orbiter, which is millions of miles from Earth, will receive a series of upgrades that improve signal reception and onboard data processing to increase the quantity and quality of scientific data sent to Earth, according to ESA.
Colin Wilson, the scientist who worked on the mission, said the software “is like turning on a whole new machine for the satellite nearly 20 years after launch.”
Pushing the new software to such an old orbiter after so long was a challenge, according to Carlo Nenna, an engineer at Enginium, an Italian IT consultancy who helped roll out the upgrade. “In order to improve the performance of MARSIS, we faced many challenges,” he said.Especially since the MARSIS software was designed over 20 years ago using a Microsoft Windows 98 based development environment!“
IT House understands that the spacecraft carries seven instruments, including various cameras, spectrometers and radar altimeters, to study the atmosphere, climate and geology of Mars. Mars Express was the first to find signs of water and carbon dioxide ice on Mars, and also collected data suggesting signs of methane.
.
[related_posts_by_tax taxonomies=”post_tag”]
The post After 19 years of code update, ESA’s “Mars Express” will get a software upgrade appeared first on Gamingsym.