ESA’s Mars Express spacecraft set off on its journey to the Red Planet almost 19 years ago. Among other things, the orbiter has played a large role in detecting signs of liquid water on Mars. One of the probe’s instruments is now receiving an important software update, not least because its program is still based on Windows 98.
In a new blog post, the European Space Agency ESA reported that the Mars Express space probe is now to receive a new software update. This is actually nothing new if the Mars Express orbiter had not been in space for almost 19 years and its important MARSIS instrument were still based on Windows 98. The MARSIS (Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionospheric Sounding) instrument was instrumental in detecting signs of liquid water on Mars.
Update improves surveys on Mars
MARSIS is operated by the Italian Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF). With its 40 meter long antenna, MARSIS sends low-frequency radio waves to the planet. The scientists use the reflected signals to map the structure below the surface of the red planet down to a depth of several kilometers. This allows various properties such as the thickness and composition of the polar ice caps and the properties of the volcanic and sedimentary rock layers to be studied.
“After decades of successful scientific work and a good understanding of Mars, we wanted to increase the performance of the instrument beyond some of the limitations required at the beginning of the mission,” said Andrea Cicchetti, Operations Manager of MARSIS at INAF. “We faced a number of challenges to improve the performance of MARSIS,” said Carlo Nenna, MARSIS On-Board Software Engineer at Enginium, who implemented the upgrade. “Not least because the MARSIS software was originally developed over 20 years ago with a development environment based on Microsoft Windows 98!”
For the study of Mars and its moon Phobos, the team had to rely on a complex technique, the data from which very quickly filled the on-board memory of the instrument. Because the new software update discards some old data, the instrument can now stay on five times longer than before and explore a larger area with each pass. As the scientists state, it’s like having a brand new instrument aboard the Mars Express almost 20 years after launch.
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