Under a contract with the European Space Agency (ESA), QinetiQ has designed and built the communication system for the Beagle-2 Mars lander - the British led effort to land on Mars as part of the ESA's Mars Express Mission.

Consisting of a lightweight bespoke transponder and transceiver weighing less than 650 grams, the system will provide the 10,000-kilometre UHF radio communications link between the Mars Express orbiter and Beagle-2 lander.

The lander communication system on the Mars Express orbiter has also been designed and built by QinetiQ. This system, known as Melacom, enables the Mars Express orbiter to act as a data relay satellite for Beagle-2 and other landers on the surface of Mars. The Beagle-2 lander has limited power and cannot communicate directly with Earth, so it has to rely on a Mars orbiting satellite to boost its data signals to and from Earth.

Antenna
Another key part of the communication system on Beagle-2 is the antenna, which is uniquely built from the existing structure and materials of the space lander - resulting in an antenna with a zero net mass.

This system can function in the harsh Martian environment with no intervention from the mission controllers who are up to 350 million kilometres away in Darmstadt, Germany.

"This is an exciting project to be involved with, especially as QinetiQ technology will transmit the first European pictures of Mars back to Earth," said Duncan Fortune, Beagle-2 Project Manager at QinetiQ. "We've also been working with NASA, who are planning to launch two rovers to Mars at the same time.

Data relay
Our Melacom system can again act as a data relay for the rovers, and furthermore Beagle-2 can send data via the NASA Odyssey spacecraft, which has been in Martian orbit since October 2001. This represents an unprecedented level of interoperability between different missions."

In June 2003, ESA's Mars Express spacecraft will set off on its six-month journey from the Baikonur launch pad in Kazakhstan on board a Soyuz Fregat Launcher. Five days before arrival in December 2003, Mars Express will eject the Beagle-2 lander, which will make its own way to the landing site on the surface of the red planet.

Printer friendly format			Back to top
Talk to QinetiQ about News