The European Space Agency (ESA) is Europe’s gateway to space. Its mission is to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space continues to deliver benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
Find out more about space activities in our 23 Member States, and understand how ESA works together with their national agencies, institutions and organisations.
Exploring our Solar System and unlocking the secrets of the Universe
Go to topicProtecting life and infrastructure on Earth and in orbit
Go to topicUsing space to benefit citizens and meet future challenges on Earth
Go to topicMaking space accessible and developing the technologies for the future
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This image was obtained by the High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) on board ESA’s Mars Express on 23 July 2008 (orbit 5851), at a distance of 93 km from the moon’s centre. The image was taken using the camera’s stereo-1 channel, at a resolution of 3.7 m/pixel.
The ellipses show the previously (red) and currently (blue) considered landing sites for the Phobos-Grunt Russian mission: based on Mars Express’ image series, the Russian Federal Space Agency is now considering to move the landing location slightly to the north of the previous one, to a safer area located between 7°-21°S and 214°-233°W.
Phobos-Grunt (meaning Phobos Soil) will land on Phobos, collect a soil sample and return it to Earth for analysis. The landing site has been selected to be on the side of the moon facing away from Mars - a place now only imaged by Mars Express after the Viking orbiters in the 1970s.