Exploring Mars

Mars Express has been orbiting the Red Planet since 2003, imaging Mars’ surface, mapping its minerals, identifying the composition and circulation of its tenuous atmosphere, probing beneath its crust, and exploring how various phenomena interact in the martian environment.

The orbiter’s HRSC, responsible for these new images, has revealed much about Mars’ diverse surface features, with images showing everything from wind-sculpted ridges and grooves to impact craters, tectonic faults, river channels and ancient lava pools. Many Mars Express images feature the Red Planet’s immense volcanoes, of which Ascraeus Mons is a fascinating example.

The mission’s High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) was developed and is operated by the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR).