Landing page for project EC064

After more than 15 years of development and a number of "live" demonstrations on the Huygens (2005), Smart1 (2006), Venus Express (2008 - 2014) and Mars Express (2009 - present time) ESA's missions, the Planetary Radio Interferometry and Doppler Experiment (PRIDE) is preparing to provide new science capabilities for the ESA's missions ExoMars-2020 and JUICE (Jupiter Icy Satellites Explorer). These capabilities, in particular, include improvement of ephemeris of the Galilean Moons of Jupiter (the JUICE mission) and monitoring of rotational dynamics of Mars (the LaRa experiment of ExoMars-2020). In order to verify and tune up new methodological approaches, we propose to take a rare opportunity of in-beam tracking of two operational Mars orbiters, the Mars Express spacecraft and the Trace Gas Orbiter of the ExoMars-2016 mission. The experiment will exploit a relatively uncommon event, occurring two-three times per year, of a very close encounter (no more than 3 arcmins of separation) between Mars and a strong quasar, well pegged to ICRF. The next observing window will be in June 2018 with the quasar J2036-2146. We request a phase-referencing observation of this pass-by.

This data is part of the archive of VLBI data maintained by JIVE on behalf of the EVN, a network of radio telescopes located primarily in Europe and Asia, with additional antennas in South Africa. The EVN archive itself has the DOI https://doi.org/10.17616/R3Z197