From its coasting to Mars until its landing, Schiaparelli will communicate with the Orbiter.
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The satellite is set to enter Mars’ orbit, and the lander to reach the Martian surface, in October. This time, British-built rover bristling with cutting-edge technology will make its way towards Mars.
When the TGO arrives at Mars following a seven-month journey, it will initially stay in a highly elliptical orbit until January 2017.
The presence of methane gas on Mars could come from life on, or under, the surface, but since the gas is also released by chemical reactions in rocks, scientists cannot be sure of its source.
“We know that the Americans know how to do it; what we want in Europe is to be capable of doing it too”, Jorge Vago, ESA’s project scientist told Geneva-based newspaper Le Temps.
Just before the launch, European Space Agency (ESA) senior science adviser Mark McCaughrean said: “Maybe we can find out if there’s life extant on the red planet”.
TGO will hunt for potential signs of Martian life in the atmosphere of the planet.
Like Beagle 2, the mission is hunting for life on Mars, and will be looking specifically for evidence of the methane, a gas primarily produced by living organisms. In this first phase, after orbiting the planet, the Schiaparelli Mars lander will be deployed to the surface of Mars, where it will conduct the mapping exercise, and test landing sites. ESA is partnering with Russia’s federal space agency, Roscosmos, for this mission.
In the same statement, Igor Komarov, general director of the Roscosmos State Space Corporation, said, “Only the process of collaboration produces the best technical solutions for great research results”.
TGO will analyse Mars’ methane in more detail than any previous mission, said ESA, in order to try to determine its likely origin.
A “lander” named Schiaparelli will detach from the orbiter and descend onto the planet’s surface to detect the materials – a process which will take about five years.
The latest mission, dubbed ExoMars mission, is scheduled to be launched from Kazakhstan’s Baikonur Cosmodrome on March 14.
The 7 month journey to Mars began at 09:31 GMT, as the Proton rocket left Earth.
The cost of the ExoMars mission to the European Space Agency, including the second part due in 2018, is expected to be about 1.3 billion euros ($1.4 billion).
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As a part of the European industrial team, OHB System AG was responsible for developing the core module of the TGO, which comprises the structure as well as the thermal and propulsion system for the 2016 mission. If they actually find anything promising, it could prompt another (much more ambitious) mission to actually take Martian soil samples and bring them back to Earth.
