Mars Express problems

It appears that MEX has two serious problems, which for some reason
are not being covered by the media:

Communications - lack of sufficient ESA capacity has made MEX
dependent on NASA's DSN and is unable to return all instrument data,
solar conjunction (Aug/Sep) is still being blamed for this even in the
latest status report:
http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/obj...objectid=36169

Deployment of the MARIS radar instrument - postponed since April 2004
due to a design problem:
http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/obj...objectid=35021

"Zzed" wrote in message
om...
It appears that MEX has two serious problems, which for some reason
are not being covered by the media:

Communications - lack of sufficient ESA capacity has made MEX
dependent on NASA's DSN and is unable to return all instrument data,
solar conjunction (Aug/Sep) is still being blamed for this even in the
latest status report:
http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/obj...objectid=36169

Deployment of the MARIS radar instrument - postponed since April 2004
due to a design problem:
http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/obj...objectid=35021

I had forgotten all about the radar boom problem. It seems like if the
motion of the expanded boom was predictable, they should be able to
counter-oscillate the spacecraft with thrusters, etc. to keep each boom
clear until it damps out. Anything they do is probably risky at this point.
It would be a shame to lose all of those great stereo color pictures.

JJ Robinson II
Houston, TX