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5 June 2003
Clamps away, Mars Express eases its grip on its lander
Europe's first mission to the Red Planet, continues its successful mission with
another successful 'high-risk' post-launch milestone. Mars Express engineers
breathed a sigh of relief this morning at the European Space Operations Centre
(ESOC), in Germany.
If a particularly delicate operation had not proceeded as planned, it would have
been impossible to deploy the Mars Express lander, Beagle 2, on arrival at Mars.
This crucial operation consisted of releasing Beagle-2's launch clamps. These
clamps are extra attachments that ensure the lander stays perfectly fixed to the
spacecraft during the launch and is not affected by launch vibrations. After the
launch, these clamps are no longer needed, since another mechanism keeps Beagle
2 in place during the six-month trip to the Red Planet.
This second mechanism allows Mars Express to deploy Beagle 2 on arrival at Mars.
However, if the launch clamps had not released today, the second mechanism would
have failed. "The Beagle-2 mission would have been over before it had even
started!" commented ESA Lander Manager, Con McCarthy.
The release of the launch clamps started at 10.10 CEST and lasted about 30
minutes. The release mechanism itself is unusual. Usually, launch clamps contain
a firework-like mechanism, but Mars Express had a much gentler release mechanism
for Beagle. It consisted of a sleeve over a clamp bolt; an electric current
heats the sleeve to about 100 C. At that temperature, the sleeve expands and the
bolt snaps. There were three bolts and they all broke in sequence.
"We had to wait two minutes for the expansion of the sleeve which snapped the
bolt. The atmosphere in the room was tense and those two minutes seemed to last
an eternity! When the first bolt went, a lot of tension was released," says
McCarthy.
There are more hurdles ahead but Mars Express is demonstrating that it can deal
with the many challenges on the way to the Red Planet.
Mars Express launch replay,
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/index.html
http://www.esa.int
5 June 2003
Clamps away, Mars Express eases its grip on its lander
Europe's first mission to the Red Planet, continues its successful mission with
another successful 'high-risk' post-launch milestone. Mars Express engineers
breathed a sigh of relief this morning at the European Space Operations Centre
(ESOC), in Germany.
If a particularly delicate operation had not proceeded as planned, it would have
been impossible to deploy the Mars Express lander, Beagle 2, on arrival at Mars.
This crucial operation consisted of releasing Beagle-2's launch clamps. These
clamps are extra attachments that ensure the lander stays perfectly fixed to the
spacecraft during the launch and is not affected by launch vibrations. After the
launch, these clamps are no longer needed, since another mechanism keeps Beagle
2 in place during the six-month trip to the Red Planet.
This second mechanism allows Mars Express to deploy Beagle 2 on arrival at Mars.
However, if the launch clamps had not released today, the second mechanism would
have failed. "The Beagle-2 mission would have been over before it had even
started!" commented ESA Lander Manager, Con McCarthy.
The release of the launch clamps started at 10.10 CEST and lasted about 30
minutes. The release mechanism itself is unusual. Usually, launch clamps contain
a firework-like mechanism, but Mars Express had a much gentler release mechanism
for Beagle. It consisted of a sleeve over a clamp bolt; an electric current
heats the sleeve to about 100 C. At that temperature, the sleeve expands and the
bolt snaps. There were three bolts and they all broke in sequence.
"We had to wait two minutes for the expansion of the sleeve which snapped the
bolt. The atmosphere in the room was tense and those two minutes seemed to last
an eternity! When the first bolt went, a lot of tension was released," says
McCarthy.
There are more hurdles ahead but Mars Express is demonstrating that it can deal
with the many challenges on the way to the Red Planet.
Mars Express launch replay,
http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/index.html