ExoMars has Red Planet in its sights - within days!

[rooster59]

ExoMars has Red Planet in its sights - within days!

 

 

Landing on Mars is notoriously difficult.

 

But Europe and Russia are attempting to do just that – in the shape of Schiaparelli.

 

That is the name of the lander to be released on Sunday by a mothership, known as the Trace Gas Orbiter or TGO. A parachute will help slow Schiaparelli’s descent.

 

It is a hugely delicate operation where timing is everything.

 

“We separate not too early so that the accuracy of landing is good but also not too late so that we have time then to reorientate the TGO and actually raise its altitude and not crash on Mars,” explained Michel Denis, ExoMars Flight Operations Director at the European Space Agency (ESA).

 

The mission blasted off in March from the Baikonur spaceport in Kazakhstan on board a Proton rocket, starting a seven-month journey through space.

 

It is the latest stage of the Exomars collaboration between the European and Russian space agencies, seeking signs of trace gases like methane — which on Earth is strongly tied to life — and which on previous Mars missions has been detected in the planet’s atmosphere.

 

If all goes well, come 2020, an Exomars rover, equipped with a drill, will follow to study the red planet in depth.

 

Is there life on Mars? The answer could be within reach.

 

 

-- © Copyright Euronews 2016-10-15

[maximillian]

European-Russian co-operation in a space mission should be followed in even closer co-operation on all possible levels. Combined know how, peaceful politics, plenty of natural resources could be beneficial for all.

 

[Grubster]

Sure theres life on mars, probably a bad idea to bring any back, when they are capable. One little microbe could wipe us out perhaps.

[biplanebluey]

5 hours ago, Grubster said:

Sure theres life on mars, probably a bad idea to bring any back, when they are capable. One little microbe could wipe us out perhaps.

 I wouldn't mind betting they know about that risk

[Grubster]

22 minutes ago, biplanebluey said:

 I wouldn't mind betting they know about that risk

I hope they do but it won't matter to me as they won't be bringing anything back in my lifetime. It sure would be cool if they found something there though wouldn't it? I don't know where you live but the night sky up here in Issan is fantastic. Can you just immagine all the cool stuff that is going on out there. I saw some of those orange orbs when I was home last year, very strange but I think there is a logical explanation that they haven't found yet. Definitely not space craft. Maybe one of those missing dimensions the physicists have been talking about.

[Stargeezr]

I hope to be alive when the first few manned missions to Mars happen.  I would not want to be in the first, second, or third mission however, as those adventurers will have a very difficult time with building a colony and fighting the radiation that they will have absorbed during their trip to the red planet. By the fourth mission , maybe the future travellers will have figured out how to be better protected during their trip from Earth to Mars.

Geezer

[swanny321]

On 15/10/2016 at 7:39 AM, Grubster said:

Sure theres life on mars, probably a bad idea to bring any back, when they are capable. One little microbe could wipe us out perhaps.

 

  It's bad enough when they drill 3 miles down in the arctic ice to recover microbes that haven't seen the light of day

in 7 million years!

[Grubster]

1 hour ago, swanny321 said:

 

  It's bad enough when they drill 3 miles down in the arctic ice to recover microbes that haven't seen the light of day

in 7 million years!

Thats right one of those could do the job too, couldn't it.

[soc]

lf there is life on Mars, then maybe one of OUR microbes could wipe them out.