Europe and Russian Federation are set to launch an unmanned spacecraft Monday to smell Mars’ atmosphere for gassy evidence that life once existed on the Red Planet, or may do so still.
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ExoMars is a joint project being carried out by the European Space Agency (ESA) and Russian space agency Roscosmos to reach and explore the planet Mars.
For those of us interested in space exploration, the ExoMars launch can be viewed live at Space.com, courtesy of the European Space Agency (ESA).
On Earth most methane is generated biologically, but it can be made by chemical processes under the surface.
Then in two years’ time, ExoMars 2018 will send a British-built rover bristling with cutting- edge technology to Mars.
Scientists widely accept that liquid water, an essential ingredient for life, once flowed on Mars.
Schiaparelli meanwhile is programmed to detach from the orbiter on October 16 and land on a flat region of Mars known as Meridiani Planum three days later.
As Robin McKie reports for The Guardian, methane is usually destroyed by ultraviolet radiation within a few hundred years of being released into the atmosphere, so if TGO was to detect some and confirms that it was biologically produced, it would suggest that life either exists on the red planet now, or did very recently.
There are traces of methane in Mars’ atmosphere. To differentiate between these two processes, the ExoMars trace gas detector will not only analyse methane levels in more detail than any previous mission but also study other gases that will provide information about its likely source. The parachute will be left behind on the back heat shield, so to slow down even more, the lander will switch on its thrusters until it gets down to about 6.6 feet (2m) off the ground, slowed to just 4.3 miles per hour (7 kph).
The disc-shaped descent and landing demonstrator module measures 7.8ft (2.4m) across with its heatshield and weighs 1,300lb (600kg).
The mission’s prime contractor, Thales Alenia Space Italia, is directing the industrial team responsible for constructing the ExoMars spacecraft.
Methane on Earth is usually tied to biological activity but on Mars, the gas is somewhat of a mystery.
Once TGO enters orbit around Mars in October, expect pretty pictures; the satellite will obtain high-resolution images of Mars’ surface using the Colour and Stereo Surface Imaging System, or CaSSIS.
Blasting off from Earth in 2018, it will reach Mars in 2021.
It will deliver a small science package to the surface created to probe the weather around it – measuring wind speed, humidity, pressure, and the amount of dust in the air.
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The ExoMars Orbiter will be inserted into an elliptical orbit around Mars and then sweep through the atmosphere to finally settle into a circular, approximately 400-km altitude orbit ready to conduct its scientific mission.
