{"id":28245,"date":"2023-06-02T09:01:08","date_gmt":"2023-06-02T07:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sciencefocus.com\/?p=145345"},"modified":"2023-06-02T09:37:11","modified_gmt":"2023-06-02T07:37:11","slug":"first-mars-livestream-today-how-to-see-stunning-new-footage-of-the-red-planet","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/rss_feed\/first-mars-livestream-today-how-to-see-stunning-new-footage-of-the-red-planet\/","title":{"rendered":"First Mars livestream today: How to see stunning new footage of the Red Planet"},"content":{"rendered":"

ESA celebrates the birthday of its Mars Express camera with an exciting opportunity to see live images of the Red Planet <\/p>

By Noa Leach\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Friday, 02 June 2023 at 12:00 am<\/p>

\n\n

For the first time ever, people across the world will be able to see live images of Mars<\/a> as seen by the European Space Agency (ESA)\u2019s Mars Express.<\/p>\n

Mars Express is an orbiter that has been in operation for two decades to the day: Friday 2 June marks its 20^{th<\/sup> birthday.<\/p>\n}

The livestream will begin at 5pm BST (9am PT or 12pm ET) and will last for one hour, with new images every 50 seconds.<\/p>\n

So where can you watch it? The livestream will be available on ESA\u2019s YouTube channel<\/a>, or directly below.<\/p>\n\n<p>Live updates will be sent from the <a href=\"\/\/twitter.com\/esaoperations"\" target=\""_blank"\" rel=\""noopener" noopener noreferrer\">ESA Operations Twitter account<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>How live is \u2018live\u2019?<\/h2>\n<p>\u2018Live\u2019 is a tricky word when it comes to space. Given that <a href=\""https:\/\/www.sciencefocus.com\/science\/how-the-brightest-minds-in-science-from-einstein-to-da-vinci-revealed-the-nature-of-light\/"\">light<\/a> has to travel such vast distances, the images we get in space have already taken place in the past.<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s more, most observations in space are made when spacecraft are not in direct contact with Earth\u2019s antennas. This might be because the spacecraft is on the other side of a planet (or on the other side of <a href=\""https:\/\/www.sciencefocus.com\/space\/the-sun\/"\">the Sun<\/a> to Earth), or because their antennas are pointing away from us.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, the <a href=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=h_qUUgQhhuo"\" target=\""_blank"\" rel=\""noopener" noopener noreferrer\">live video sent back from missions like the Apollo moon landings<\/a> are still relatively rare in the realms of space footage \u2013 it\u2019s only because the Moon is closer to home that this was possible.<\/p>\n<p>On 2 June, ESA\u2019s Mars Express will be beaming new images across every 50 seconds with its Visual Monitoring Camera (VMC) \u2013 which will appear on your screen 18 minutes after they have been taken in space.<\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"\/\/www.esa.int\/Enabling_Support\/Operations\/Tune_in_for_first_Mars_livestream"\" target=\""_blank"\" rel=\""noopener" noopener noreferrer\">ESA<\/a>, \u201cthat\u2019s 17 minutes for light to travel from Mars to Earth in their current configuration, and about one minute to pass through the wires and servers on the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>\u201cWe\u2019ve never tried anything like this before\u201d<\/h2>\n<p>Because anything close to live footage is quite hard to come by in space, there is little precedent for a livestream of this kind \u2013 and there\u2019s every chance that things might not go as planned.<\/p>\n<p>The ESA state that they have \u201cnever tried anything like this before\u201d, so the exact times the signals will take to travel may change.<\/p>\n<div class=\""image-handler__container\" image-handler__container--full=\"\" style=\""padding-bottom:\" calc=\"\"> <picture><source media=\""(max-width:\" data-srcset=\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/4\/2023\/06\/TheVisualMonitoringCameraonboardMarsExpressESAsMarswebcam-3f1a693.gif?webp=true&quality=90&resize=300%2C200,\" https:=\"\" type=\""image\/webp"\"><source media=\""(max-width:\" data-srcset=\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/4\/2023\/06\/TheVisualMonitoringCameraonboardMarsExpressESAsMarswebcam-3f1a693.gif?quality=90&resize=300%2C200,\" https:=\"\" type=\""image\/gif"\"><source media=\""(max-width:\" data-srcset=\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/4\/2023\/06\/TheVisualMonitoringCameraonboardMarsExpressESAsMarswebcam-3f1a693.gif?webp=true&quality=90&resize=355%2C237,\" https:=\"\" type=\""image\/webp"\"><source media=\""(max-width:\" data-srcset=\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/4\/2023\/06\/TheVisualMonitoringCameraonboardMarsExpressESAsMarswebcam-3f1a693.gif?quality=90&resize=355%2C237,\" https:=\"\" type=\""image\/gif"\"><source media=\""(max-width:\" data-srcset=\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/4\/2023\/06\/TheVisualMonitoringCameraonboardMarsExpressESAsMarswebcam-3f1a693.gif?webp=true&quality=90&resize=405%2C270,\" https:=\"\" type=\""image\/webp"\"><source media=\""(max-width:\" data-srcset=\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/4\/2023\/06\/TheVisualMonitoringCameraonboardMarsExpressESAsMarswebcam-3f1a693.gif?quality=90&resize=405%2C270,\" https:=\"\" type=\""image\/gif"\"><source media=\""(max-width:\" data-srcset=\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/4\/2023\/06\/TheVisualMonitoringCameraonboardMarsExpressESAsMarswebcam-3f1a693.gif?webp=true&quality=90&resize=554%2C369"\" type=\""image\/webp"\"><source media=\""(max-width:\" data-srcset=\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/4\/2023\/06\/TheVisualMonitoringCameraonboardMarsExpressESAsMarswebcam-3f1a693.gif?quality=90&resize=554%2C369"\" type=\""image\/gif"\"><source media=\""(min-width:\" data-srcset=\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/4\/2023\/06\/TheVisualMonitoringCameraonboardMarsExpressESAsMarswebcam-3f1a693.gif?webp=true&quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" type=\""image\/webp"\"><source media=\""(min-width:\" data-srcset=\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/4\/2023\/06\/TheVisualMonitoringCameraonboardMarsExpressESAsMarswebcam-3f1a693.gif?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" type=\""image\/gif"\"><source media=\""(min-width:\" data-srcset=\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/4\/2023\/06\/TheVisualMonitoringCameraonboardMarsExpressESAsMarswebcam-3f1a693.gif?webp=true&quality=90&resize=408%2C272,\" https:=\"\" type=\""image\/webp"\"><source media=\""(min-width:\" data-srcset=\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/4\/2023\/06\/TheVisualMonitoringCameraonboardMarsExpressESAsMarswebcam-3f1a693.gif?quality=90&resize=408%2C272,\" https:=\"\" type=\""image\/gif"\"><source media=\""(min-width:\" data-srcset=\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/4\/2023\/06\/TheVisualMonitoringCameraonboardMarsExpressESAsMarswebcam-3f1a693.gif?webp=true&quality=90&resize=556%2C371"\" type=\""image\/webp"\"><source media=\""(min-width:\" data-srcset=\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/4\/2023\/06\/TheVisualMonitoringCameraonboardMarsExpressESAsMarswebcam-3f1a693.gif?quality=90&resize=556%2C371"\" type=\""image\/gif"\"><img class=\""wp-image-145348\" align=\"\" size-full=\"\" image-handler__image=\"\" image-handler__image--full=\"\" no-wrap=\"\" js-lazyload=\"\" data-src=\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/4\/2023\/06\/TheVisualMonitoringCameraonboardMarsExpressESAsMarswebcam-3f1a693.gif?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" width=\""620"\" height=\""413"\" alt=\""A"\" title=\""The\" visual=\"\" monitoring=\"\" camera=\"\" on=\"\" board=\"\" mars=\"\" express=\"\" esa=\"\"\/><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div><div class=\""caption-hold"\"><figcaption class=\""wp-caption-text"\"><span class=\""caption-copy"\"><i class=\""icon-arrow\" icon-camera-circle=\"\"\/> The Visual Monitoring Camera (VMC) on board Mars Express \u00a9 ESA<\/span><\/figcaption><span class=\""im-image-caption"\"\/><\/div>\n<p>\u201cThis is an old camera, originally planned for engineering purposes, at a distance of almost three million kilometres from Earth \u2013 this hasn\u2019t been tried before and to be honest, we\u2019re not 100 per cent certain it\u2019ll work,\u201d explains James Godfrey, Spacecraft Operations Manager at ESA\u2019s mission control centre in Darmstadt, Germany.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut I\u2019m pretty optimistic. Normally, we see images from Mars and know that they were taken days before. I\u2019m excited to see Mars as it is now \u2013 as close to a martian \u2018now\u2019 as we can possibly get!\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>What is the Mars Express mission?<\/h2>\n<p>Mars Express was launched on 2 June 2003, arriving at Mars in December of the same year.<\/p>\n<p>The VMC or \u2018Mars Webcam\u2019 was originally sent out to monitor the separation of the Beagle 2 lander from the Mars Express (MEX) spacecraft 20 years ago. After this it was turned off \u2013 but was turned back on in 2007 when scientists realised it could be of more use to science.<\/p>\n<p>Over the last 20 years, the Mars Webcam has provided the most complete map of the Red Planet\u2019s atmosphere\u2019s chemical composition, while also tracing the history of water on Mars. This information helped to demonstrate that Mars could once have sustained life.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read more<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<ul><li><a href=\""https:\/\/www.sciencefocus.com\/news\/europes-martian-orbiter-releases-incredible-pictures-of-the-red-planets-grand-canyon\/"\">Europe\u2019s Martian orbiter releases incredible pictures of the Red Planet\u2019s \u2018Grand Canyon\u2019<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\""https:\/\/www.sciencefocus.com\/space\/instant-genius-podcast-life-on-mars-with-lewis-dartnell\/"\">Instant Genius Podcast: Life on Mars, with Lewis Dartnell<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\""https:\/\/www.sciencefocus.com\/news\/signs-of-ancient-flowing-water-found-on-mars\/"\">Signs of ancient flowing water found on Mars<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul> <\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> ESA celebrates the birthday of its Mars Express camera with an exciting opportunity to see live images of the Red Planet <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":28246,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"4"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/06\/first-mars-livestream-today-how-to-see-stunning-new-footage-of-the-red-planet.jpg",1200,800,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/06\/first-mars-livestream-today-how-to-see-stunning-new-footage-of-the-red-planet-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/06\/first-mars-livestream-today-how-to-see-stunning-new-footage-of-the-red-planet-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/06\/first-mars-livestream-today-how-to-see-stunning-new-footage-of-the-red-planet-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/06\/first-mars-livestream-today-how-to-see-stunning-new-footage-of-the-red-planet-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/06\/first-mars-livestream-today-how-to-see-stunning-new-footage-of-the-red-planet.jpg",1200,800,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2023\/06\/first-mars-livestream-today-how-to-see-stunning-new-footage-of-the-red-planet.jpg",1200,800,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"ESA celebrates the birthday of its Mars Express camera with an exciting opportunity to see live images of the Red Planet","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/28245"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}