Launched from the Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the rocket is part of a joint scientific effort between Russian Federation and the European Space Agency (ESA), known as ExoMars 2016-2018, reported GeekWire. The joint mission between European and Russian space aeronautics teams announced that they launched a shuttle designated for the red planet where they will carry out an exploration mission. Installed on the rocket, the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) will travel the 300 million miles to Mars and begin its mission by circling the planet, detecting trace gases in its atmosphere. Beagle 2 disappeared during landing, a setback the agency is keen to avoid this time, hence the decision to separate the orbiter mission from the actual landing attempt.
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Paolo Ferri, ESA’s head of mission operations, says traces of methane previously discovered in the Martian atmosphere indicate recent geological or even biological activity. Moreover, the ExoMars mission involves a two-pronged approach.
One of the mission’s project scientists, Jorge Vago, told Germany news outlet Deutsche Welle that the Trace Gas Orbiter will essentially act as “a big nose in space”, as it analyzes Mars’ atmosphere.
Searching for signs of past and present life is also the main goal of the upcoming rover.
European Space Agency (ESA) has announced that two European Mars probes have registered successful launches and are on their way to Mars.
The second probe, Schiaparelli, is a trial lander which will test technology ahead of the later mission.
TGO will analyse Mars’ methane in more detail than any previous mission, said ESA, in order to try to determine its likely origin.
The lander will investigate whether the methane – recently found in small concentrations on the planet by an American rover – come from the surface of Mars or perhaps from something living underground. “ExoMars Phase 2 will launch in 2018 and includes a rover created to conduct exobiology and geochemistry research”.
The mission is predicted to take between 10 and 30 years. It will be followed in 2018 by Europe’s first Martian rover, which is now being fine-tuned by Airbus Defence and Space engineers in Stevenage.
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The module takes its name from 19th century Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli whose discovery of “canals” on Mars caused people to believe, for a while, that there was intelligent life on our neighbouring planet.
