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More Funding for Project to Study Mars Surface

Planet Researchers at Freie Universität Berlin Granted Nearly 2.7 Million Euros for Camera Experiment as Part of Mars Express Mission

№ 441/2016 from Dec 14, 2016

Further exploration of the surface of the planet Mars using a high-resolution camera has been secured for another three years. The Department of Planetology and Remote Sensing at the Institute of Geological Sciences at Freie Universität Berlin has been granted 2.67 million euros. The High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on the Mars Express mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) will continue to be funded through the end of 2019 by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy (BMWi) and supported by the German National Space Agency (DLR e. V. Raumfahrtmanagement). The involved researchers aim to work on completing and improving the mosaics made from individual images that the probe takes in orbit. They intend to compile the enormous amounts of image data into a global map with the aim of being able to gain physical and geological information from it about the origin and evolution of the planet Mars.

The systematic coverage of Mars with the HRSC experiment began in January 2004. Up to now, the researchers have succeeded in recording 98 percent of the total surface of Mars with a resolution higher than 100 meters per pixel. The camera is still functioning flawlessly, after orbiting Mars more than 16,000 times. The Berlin researchers from Freie Universität and the German Aerospace Center (DLR Adlershof) are preparing to map Mars even after 2019.

Press releases and other information about the High Resolution Stereo Camera experiment at: www.fu-berlin.de/planeten

Further Information

  • Dr. Julia Lanz-Kröchert (Project Leader), Institute of Geological Sciences, Freie Universität Berlin, Tel.: +49 30 838-60883, Email: julia.lanz-kroechert@ fu-berlin.de
  • Dipl.-Geogr. Heike Balthasar, Institute of Geological Sciences, Freie Universität Berlin (Project Assistant/PR), Tel.: +49 30 838-70555, Email: Heike.Balthasar@fu-berlin.de

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