Astronaut’s eye view: Mars Express orbiting the Red Planet

2 June 2010 - This video shows what future astronauts would see from their cockpit: Mars turning below as they sweep around the Red Planet. Last month, ESA's Mars Express snapped images every minute to create a unique video that loops through a complete orbit of Earth's gorgeous neighbour. Mars holds a special fascination for humans. Its relative proximity and its solid surface make it a tantalising target for exploration. Thanks to this new video from Mars Express, we can now imagine what it will be like to orbit the Red Planet some day, possibly searching for a place to land. Last month, mission controllers commanded the Visual Monitoring Camera (VMC) to acquire an image of Mars every minute during one complete, 7-hour orbit. The VMC is a low-resolution, non-scientific digital camera originally used only to confirm separation of the Mars Express lander in 2003.