From Mission Concept to Mars Orbit: Exploiting Operations Concept Flexibilities on Mars Express

T chapter presents the development of the Mars Express (MEX) operations concept within a historical framework. Starting from the loss of the Mars 96 Russian orbiter and the birth of Mars Express, the chapter leads on to the sizing of the design-case mission [at Astrium Space SA (ASTRIUM) in 1999], and through to the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) Operations Concept Workshop in February 2000. It goes on to describe the evolution and changes evident at the Mission Planning and Operations Concept workshop in April 2002 and fi nally experience from the fl ight domain covering 2003–2006. The operational costs and their evolution are not covered. The next section will present a brief history of the Mars Express mission, its origins in the failure of Mars96, and the implications of these origins in terms of operational orbit, payload accommodation, and the development life cycle. Section III will describe the operations concept as it was initially designed in 1999/2000 during the specifi cation and development of the spacecraft and early