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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Landers and rovers on Mars gather data that help scientists answer fundamental questions about the geology, atmosphere, surface environment, history of water and potential for life on the Red Planet.
To get their data to Earth, they first transmit signals containing the data up to spacecraft in orbit around Mars. These spacecraft then use their much larger, more powerful transmitters to ‘relay’ the data across space to Earth.
This November, ESA’s Mars Express team conducted a series of experimental data relay tests with the Chinese Zhurong Mars rover.
When Mars Express flew over Zhurong’s landing site in Utopia Planitia, it switched on its radio and listened. If it detected Zhurong's signal sent up "in the blind", its radio locked on to it and began recording any data. At the end of the communication window, the spacecraft turned to face Earth and relayed these data across space the same way it does for other scientific Mars missions.
Any data that arrived at ESOC were forwarded on to the Zhurong team for processing and analysis who confirmed the culmination of the experiment in a successful test on 20 November.