Mars Express In The Shadow Of Mars

Posted by tourdemars to Mars Express at March 1, 2004 12:00 PM

It is the start of eclipse season for Mars Express. That means unavoidable passages of the spacecraft through the shadow of Mars, cutting it off from the sunlight that is converted into electrical power by the orbiter's solar arrays. This creates a nervous time for engineers at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany.