ASPERA-3 is one of seven scientific instruments aboard the Mars Express spacecraft. Mars Express is a European Space Agency mission that launched from Russia in June 2003 and entered into orbit around Mars on December 25, 2003. The main objective of the mission is to search for sub-surface water from orbit and drop a lander on the Martian surface. The instruments onboard the orbiting spacecraft will perform remote sensing measurements designed to answer questions about the Martian atmosphere, the planet's structure and geology.
The scientific objectives of ASPERA-3 are to study the interaction between the solar wind and the atmosphere of Mars and to
characterize the plasma and neutral gas environment in the near-Mars space. The instrument will use a technique known as
Energetic Neutral Atom (ENA) imaging to visualize the charged and neutral gas environments around Mars. ASPERA-3 will make
the first ever ENA measurements at another planet.
These studies will address the fundamental question of how strongly interplanetary plasma and electromagnetic fields affect the Martian
atmosphere, which is directly related to the many questions about water on Mars. Where is it? Is it lost or frozen? If lost, how did
it escape? If frozen, where is it stored? Since liquid water is the key requirement for life, a clear understanding of the fate of Martian
water is crucial to resolve whether or not life existed on Mars in the past.
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The ASPERA-3 instrument has four sensors to gather the data, along with the data processing unit and the scanning platform.
Two of the sensors, the Electron Spectrometer (ELS) and the Ion Mass Analyzer (IMA) Imaging Detector, are being funded by NASA as a Discovery
Mission of Opportunity. The IMA is a separate unit connected by a cable to the ASPERA-3 experiment.
Dr. Rickard Lundin of the Swedish Institute of Space Physics is leading the development of ASPERA-3. The ELS and IMA will be built by Southwest
Research Institute of San Antonio, Texas, led by Dr. David Winningham, Principal Investigator and John Scherrer, Project Manager. The instrument is being
built by a large international team of 15 groups from 10 countries.
A Discovery Mission of Opportunity is not a complete Discovery Mission, but rather is just one piece of a larger mission. It gives the U.S. scientific community the
chance to participate in non-NASA missions by providing funding for a science instrument, hardware components of a science instrument, or expertise in critical areas
of a mission.
For more information, please visit the ASPERA-3 home page.
