Do you think the computers in your office are out of date for an update? They probably do not compare with one of the most famous spacecraft of the European Space Agency. ESA upgraded the MARSIS (Advanced Mars Radar for Underground and Ionospheric Probing) software to its Mars Express orbiter 19 years after its launch in June 2003. For context, the original code was created using a toolkit designed for Windows 98 – there are computers in museums that are newer than Microsoft’s operating system.
The update promises to dramatically improve the efficiency of the Mars Express. The initial approach collected large amounts of high-resolution data that quickly flooded the memory. With the new software, scientists can throw away unnecessary data. This allows MARSIS to run five times longer than before and to cover much wider sections of Mars and Phobos in a given passage.
The improvement should help to study the underground levels of Mars and Phobos in much greater detail. The researchers hope that the additional resolution will allow them to quickly confirm signals alluding to liquid water near the south pole of Mars. In fact, updating MARSIS will ensure that Mars Express can continue its mission.
The Mars Express is best known for detecting previous signs of liquid water on the Red Planet, but it is also best known for capturing dramatic visualizations of the Martian landscape. Although there will not necessarily be such titles as a result of the update, it should remain relevant where it may be out of date.
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