Packing up for Mars

Mars Express will launch from the Baikonur cosmodrome

Mars Express is almost ready for delivery to the launch site at Baikonur in Kazakhstan. In the fifth instalment of the BBC News Online Mars Express diary, Don McCoy describes the massive packing operation.

If you had to launch something into space, what would you take to the launch site?

This is exactly the question now facing the team as we prepare for our move to Kazakhstan where the Mars Express spacecraft will be launched by the Soyuz-Fregat launch vehicle.

Imagine being part of a team of around 50 people responsible for finalising the plans for the last months on Earth of the Mars Express before it departs on its interplanetary mission.

You must think about all the things that could go wrong, so just in case you need to have extra parts, extra tools and sometimes extra people.

You must also think about what you yourself will need during the weeks spent in a remote location in Kazakhstan. How many socks should I pack? Which technical manuals should I take? How fast will my e-mail connection be? What happens if one of the computers breaks down?

Big day

Planning for a launch campaign is not easy. For months the team members have been preparing themselves for the big day when we fly off to the launch site and begin the final preparations.

There is so much we need to take; in all it will weigh around 80 tonnes and fill an Antonov 124 aircraft

Our team's job is mainly concerned with the spacecraft but there are other teams also hard at work preparing the launcher for shipment from its assembly line in Russia to the launch site in Baikonur.

The team at the European Space Agency's (Esa's) mission control centre in Darmstadt, Germany, is also busy. It will be their job to take control of the satellite and to track its course some 90 minutes after lift-off, so they must be ready.

In preparation, they are going over and over simulations of the various mission phases so that they will be able to deal with any contingency.

Then there are the scientists! They are fully involved in planning how their instruments will be used once Mars Express is in space.

High spirits

Excitement is already approaching crescendo and we still have nine months to go before Mars Express will be in orbit [around Mars].

There is still much to do, but at least the long list of items to take to Baikonur has been completed so we are sure not to forget anything.

There is so much we need to take; in all it will weigh around 80 tonnes and fill an Antonov 124 aircraft.

The next instalment will tell you about the flight to Kazakhstan and give some inside news on life at the launch site in Baikonur.

Don McCoy is the Mars Express Assembly Integration and Verification Engineer. Mars Express will be Europe's first mission to the Red Planet. It will deliver the British Beagle 2 lander to the Martian surface.

Image courtesy of Esa.