posted 08-22-2008 11:30 AM               

The Visual Monitoring Camera (VMC) is mounted on Mars Express, ESA's deep-space probe now orbiting the Red Planet. It originally provided simple, low-tech images of Beagle lander separation, and is now back in action as the 'Mars Webcam'. It's not a scientific instrument, but it does provide fantastic views of Mars - including crescent views of the planet not obtainable from Earth.

The VMC consists of a small CMOS-based optical camera, which can be fitted with an on-pixel RGB color filter for color images. The camera has a basic command interface that can be operated by ground controllers at ESOC; it does not offer advanced features such as upgradable software as found on other instruments.

The VMC really is just a regular 'web cam' such as found attached to any home PC, except it is specially qualified to function in the space environment.

posted 06-02-2023 11:04 AM               

On Friday (June 2, 2023), to celebrate the 20th birthday of ESA's Mars Express, you'll have the chance to get as close as it's currently possible get to a live view from Mars. Tune in to be amongst the first to see new pictures roughly every 50 seconds as they're beamed down directly from the Visual Monitoring Camera on board ESA's long-lived and still highly productive martian orbiter.

"This is an old camera, originally planned for engineering purposes, at a distance of almost three million kilometres from Earth – this hasn't been tried before and to be honest, we're not 100% certain it'll work," explains James Godfrey, Spacecraft Operations Manager at ESA's mission control centre in Darmstadt, Germany.

"But I'm pretty optimistic. Normally, we see images from Mars and know that they were taken days before. I'm excited to see Mars as it is now – as close to a martian 'now' as we can possibly get!'