The european module Schiaparelli faces a tough test this Sunday: after a journey of seven months, must be separated from the probe TGO to land three days later on Mars, a difficult exercise that has in vilo to the responsible of the european space programme.
simultaneously, the probe Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), which led to Schiaparelli in his journey of 496 million kilometers from the Earth, must be placed in orbit around the Red Planet, a phase-complicated for this mission Russian-european.
Until now, only the united States has achieved the feat and the europeans face the mission with the ominous precedent of the project, Beagle 2, which disappeared without a trace thirteen years ago, just after separating from its mother ship.
In 2015, the images of a probe us allowed to ascertain that the device had managed to land but that its solar panels had failed to deploy.
The great leap that you have to give the module Schiaparelli is the first stage of ExoMars, an ambitious mission scientific cooperation between Europe and Russia, which has two objectives: search for signs of life currently on Mars or signs that it has been able to develop in the past.
The probe TGO, for its part, will be in charge of “sniffing” the atmosphere of Mars to detect traces of gases, such as methane, a possible indication that there is currently a way of life. Their work will begin in early 2018.
In 2020, Europe and Russia will send a robot that will incorporate the technological developments of Schiaparelli. This device is going to make perforations to continue the search for remains of life, this time focusing on the possibility that the Red Planet could harbor bacteria.
The landing on Mars, planned for three days, is not an easy task, and Schiaparelli may be at the mercy of the weather on mars.
“we Know that we will reach during the season of dust storms and this led us to draw a more rugged design for Schiaparelli,” said Thierry Blancquaert, responsible for the landing at the European Space Agency (ESA).
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