Mars Express Radio Science: First Results

The Mars Express spacecraft was successfully injected into the Mars orbit on Christmas Day 2003. First data recording in orbit by the Mars Express Radio Science (MaRS) experiment started in mid January 2004. The goal of the MaRS experiment is the radio sounding of the neutral atmosphere and ionosphere to derive vertical profiles of temperature, pressure and electron density, to measure gravity anomalies, and to characterize the surface by a bistatic radar experiment. Measurement sensitivities based on first observations during cruise and first results from orbit shall be presented.