The Proton rocket will launch the first of two ExoMars missions, together costing €1.2 billion (£924 million), created to uncover signs of past or present life on the Red Planet.
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A Russian-made Proton rocket did its job on Monday, successfully blasting off and embarking upon a journey to Mars.
Also housed in the rocket’s Breeze-M upper stage was a robot lander, Schiaparelli, which is due to parachute down onto a Martian plain in October. ExoMars 2016 aims to sift through the Martian atmosphere in search of methane and other trace gases which, the scientists suggest, might indicate that there are active biological or geological processes underway on the distant planet.
The ExoMars mission will complement the work of NASA’s “Curiosity” rover which has spent more than three years on Mars as part of the Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission. The TGO will analyze methane and other atmospheric gases to determine where they are coming from. It is due to reach Mars in October and, after a year getting into the correct orbit, 250 miles above the planet, will spend five years observing the land below. We would take with us bugs, and if now those bugs meet martian bugs, that could be a disaster.Landing a spacecraft on Mars is notoriously hard and several attempts in the past have failed, including ESAs Beagle 2 probe that was part of the Mars Express mission in 2003. Later, Russian space agency Roscosmos came aboard. Moreover, the fact the mission took place amid turbulent East-West ties heightened its significance, he said. It will also serve as a data relay for the second ExoMars-Mission, comprising a rover and a surface science platform, planned for launch in 2018.
Schiaparelli, which will separate from the orbiter just days before their arrival at Mars, will demonstrate that ESA has the technology to carry out a controlled landing, needed for further exploration of the planet. Bilbring says that the Earth, which is larger than the planet Mars, will one day grow as still and cold beneath the surface of Mars before the sun blinks out. While many gases are associated with biological activity, methane has been traditionally considered as one of the strongest potential indicators of biological life on the planetary surface below.
The ESA has said that there is ample evidence that liquid water existed and flowed on the surface of Mars in the past.
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But budget problems years ago prompted the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to pull out of the ExoMars mission, sparking frustration and anger among European space officials while opening the door for Russian Federation to replace the U.S.in the endeavor.
