[X] My Assistant

[Guest_Myran_*]

Mars Express Orbiter gets a lease of life, the mission have been extended one Martian year (23 months) from early December 2005.

[bobik]

In regard to the last sentence of the article, it is important to note that Mars Express is currently only funded until the end of March 2023, further extensions are subject to ESA budget allocations at the upcoming ESA Council at Ministerial Level (CM22) in November 2022, which seem to be not so rosy in respect to space science. From the technical point of view, Mars Express is still going strong and an extension of operations even into the 2030s is feasible.

[mcaplinger]

Mars Express is still going strong and an extension of operations even into the 2030s is feasible.

Interesting, considering that MEPAG presentations as recent as May 2022 had basically written MEx off as a viable relay ("Fuel load extremely low and uncertain"). https://www.lpi.usra.edu/mepag/meetings/mep...anson_Meyer.pdf