Humans can now live stream from outside Earth; experiment from Mars success

LONDON: Sharing live videos through social media has become our norm here on Earth. From now on, live streaming from other planets or moons are also possible. The European Space Agency's Mars mission, Mars Express, has sent a live video for the first time. Video footage taken while orbiting Mars was sent back to Earth in real-time.

The video was received a minute late at the ground station. However, these images reached Earth from a distance of 300 million kilometers, within 17 minutes. Rain at the Deep Space Relay antenna in Spain also disrupted transmissions. The first images show about one-third of Mars. The white clouds of Mars are clearly visible in the bigger images.

Mars Express is an artificial satellite that has been orbiting Mars for the past two decades. Mars Express was launched in 2003 to study the Martian climate, geography and atmosphere. It also involved studying the possibilities of life on the planet. Its radar instrument Marsis was able to detect water on the planet in the form of snow. Mars Express will continue to explore Mars till 2026.