CNES, the French space agency

Chapter 1 · 1961 – 2002 France’s space agency

The Centre national d’études spatiales was born in 1961. In forty years it gave France a launcher, a base in French Guiana and a space industry, before putting its instruments to work exploring Mars.

De Gaulle and Asterix

On December 19, 1961, President Charles de Gaulle founded the Centre national d’études spatiales, CNES. On November 26, 1965, from the Hammaguir base in Algeria, the first French launcher, Diamant, put the first French satellite, Asterix, into orbit. The Guiana Space Centre at Kourou was established that same year; the Toulouse Space Centre in 1968.

Ariane and Europe

In 1973 the Ariane program got under way. In 1975, when the European Space Agency was created, CNES became its leading contributor. On December 24, 1979, Ariane 1 made its maiden flight. In 1986 SPOT-1 became, according to CNES, the first high-resolution civil Earth-imaging satellite. In 1995 came Helios, France’s first military observation satellite.

Sources: CNES, “History” (founded on December 19, 1961 by Charles de Gaulle, Diamant and Asterix on November 26, 1965 from Hammaguir, Guiana Space Centre in 1965, Toulouse Space Centre in 1968, Ariane in 1973, ESA in 1975 with CNES as leading contributor, Ariane 1 on December 24, 1979, SPOT-1 in 1986, Helios in 1995).

Chapter 2 · 2003 – 2024 French instruments on Mars

Since 2003, French laboratories and CNES have provided several major Mars missions with a key instrument: a spectrometer, a laser, a seismometer, a microphone.

Mars Express

Launched on June 2, 2003, the European Mars Express probe carried three instruments with French contributions. OMEGA, a spectrometer mapping surface minerals in visible and infrared light, was conceived at the Institut d’astrophysique spatiale in Orsay and the LESIA laboratory in Meudon; SPICAM, an ultraviolet and infrared spectrometer for the atmosphere, at LATMOS. CNES funded and supported OMEGA and SPICAM, and built the ground segment for a third instrument, ASPERA. Over some ten years, the probe detected clays and hydrated sulfates, confirming that liquid water once flowed on Mars.

ChemCam

On the Curiosity rover, the ChemCam instrument was designed and developed in France and the United States. CNES is the project owner; the Institut de recherche en astrophysique et planétologie in Toulouse, IRAP, holds technical and scientific responsibility, with Los Alamos National Laboratory. More than three hundred people worked on it in France. Its laser heats a patch of rock smaller than a square millimeter to more than 10,000 degrees; the resulting spark reveals the rock’s composition. ChemCam was delivered to JPL in August 2010 and landed with Curiosity on August 6, 2012. From Toulouse, at CNES’s FOCSE operations center, French teams program the instrument one week in two and receive its data.

SEIS

On the InSight lander, which touched down on November 26, 2018, the SEIS seismometer was developed by France: CNES led its development with the Institut de physique du globe de Paris and other European and American partners, then ran its operations. SEIS entered service in early February 2019. On April 7, 2019, it detected the first quake ever recorded on Mars. By measuring the planet’s activity, it made it possible to infer its internal structure, such as the size of the core and the thickness of the mantle. InSight last communicated with Earth on December 15, 2022; after two attempts went unanswered, NASA declared the mission over on December 21.

SuperCam

On Perseverance, which landed on February 18, 2021, SuperCam combines three spectrometers, a camera and a microphone. Its upper part, the “head” at the top of the mast, is the French contribution: IRAP designed and coordinated it under CNES oversight, with several other French laboratories. Its laser reaches seven meters. The microphone listens to the noise of laser impacts to estimate the hardness and porosity of rocks, and is also used to study the atmosphere.

Sources: CNES, “Mars Express” (OMEGA, IAS and LESIA, SPICAM and LATMOS, ASPERA, CNES’s role, June 2 and December 25, 2003, clays and hydrated sulfates); CNES, “ChemCam” (project owner, IRAP and LANL, more than 300 people, more than 10,000 °C and less than a mm², delivery in August 2010, landing on August 6, 2012, FOCSE in Toulouse); CNES, “InSight” (SEIS, IPGP and partners, operations, landing on November 26, 2018, service from early February 2019, first quake on April 7, 2019, end of operations on December 21, 2022); NASA, “NASA Retires InSight Mars Lander Mission After Years of Science,” December 21, 2022 (last communication on December 15, two unanswered attempts, end of mission); CNES, “SuperCam” (IRAP’s Mast Unit under CNES oversight, French labs, three spectrometers, camera and microphone, 7 m range, landing on February 18, 2021); CNES, “Planète Mars” dossier (ChemCam of French design, SEIS developed by France).

Chapter 3 · 2017 – 2031 Idefix, a rover on Phobos

With the Japanese MMX mission, a vehicle designed in France and Germany is to drive, for the first time, on a moon of Mars.

The rover

For MMX, the Japanese Phobos sample-return mission, CNES is building with the German space agency, DLR, the small Idefix rover and its four instruments. It is to attempt to drive on Phobos, where gravity is about 1,800 times weaker than on Earth, during a hundred-day mission. CNES also provides the MIRS near-infrared imaging spectrometer, built by the LIRA laboratory (formerly LESIA), which will identify the moons’ minerals, study Mars’s atmosphere and help choose landing sites; and it studies the cruise trajectories.

The schedule

Launch is planned for October 20, 2026, from Tanegashima, Japan. Between 2027 and 2030 the spacecraft is to enter orbit around Phobos, land, collect at least ten grams of material from two centimeters down and set the rover on the surface. The samples are to return to Earth in 2031, in the Australian desert.

Sources: CNES, “MMX” (Idefix with DLR and its four instruments, gravity 1,800 times weaker, hundred-day mission, MIRS and the LIRA lab, flight dynamics, launch on October 20, 2026, 2027-2030, at least 10 g from 2 cm, return in 2031 in Australia). The book on JAXA tells the mission in more detail. The CNES page counts twelve instruments aboard in one place and thirteen in another; we do not give the number.