Ten years of European Mars research

In June 2003, the probe Mars Express began its journey to the Red Planet. Initially, the European Space Agency (ESA) had wanted the mission to last just 687 days. But the probe has now been in space for ten years - sending back data and images of our closest, planetary neighbor.

The Mars Express is Europe's largest Mars mission to date. One of its main goals is to create a detailed map of the planet. It is also collecting data on the atmosphere of Mars and its surface.

The Mars Express has orbited the planet more than 12,000 times. It has recorded nearly three quarters of the planet's surface with the help of high-resolution stereo cameras. The images will eventually make up a complete, 3D model of Mars.

The probe uses special cameras supplied by the German Space Agency (DLR). Nine light sensitive detectors - from nine different angles - are creating the images of the planet's surface, such as the Acheron trenches here.

America's space agency NASA also has its probes on Mars. The Mars Rover Curiosity has been rolling around the planet since August 2012, digging holes and collecting samples. It is the largest robot on the planet and the most expensive mission to date - costing around $2.5 billion.

Curiosity is looking for elements that could support life on Mars - or may have in the past - such as nitrogen, carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, sulfur and phosphorus. By analyzing the data, researchers on Earth hope to build a picture of the evolution of Mars' atmosphere over four billion years.

Since 1960, scientists have sent 40 space probes to Mars. Most of the missions have been American or Soviet/Russian. But only few have been successful. Some of the probes failed to even reach Earth's orbit. So far, Europe's sole success has been the Mars Express.

Mars has two polar caps of frozen carbon dioxide and ice. The northern polar cap has a diameter of about 1,000 kilometers. It is 5 kilometers thick. The southern one has a diameter of 350 kilometers and is 1.5 kilometers thick. There has also been evidence of water. An earlier probe called Phoenix discovered water drops.

Has there ever been life on Mars? Maybe. Maybe not. It doesn't really matter what the answer is - Mars will always be a special place for us Earthlings.