Europe embarks on a new journey to Mars with Russian help – Teletrece

AFP

Europe launches on Monday in a new adventure to Mars to try landing a module on the Red Planet and “sniff” some gases in the atmosphere in the hope of finding evidence of forms of life today.

the Schiaparelli module ExoMars 2016 mission aims essentially “to Europe learn how to land on Mars “ says the Argentine Jorge Vago, chief scientist of the program for the European Space Agency (ESA).

” Let’s try braking aerodynamic, opening a parachute, the firing of the thrusters and the deformable material “to cushion the contact with the surface, told AFP Michel Viso, the French space agency CNES.

After the abandonment of Americans for budgetary reasons in 2011, it launched the European mission ExoMars 2016 with the collaboration of Russia.

Then will be the turn of another Russian-European mission, ExoMars 2018 , which will send a vehicle to look for signs of past life on Mars. Scheduled for 2018, could be delayed.

A Russian Proton rocket will be in charge of launching into space ExoMars 2016, which carry a probe capable of detecting gases at trace levels, called TGO (Trace Gaz Orbiter) and a test module landing, named Schiaparelli.

the launch from Baikonur (Kazakhstan) is scheduled on Monday at 09:31 GMT.

If all goes well, after a seven-month journey in which he will travel 496 million kilometers, the lander will separate from the probe on October 16 to land on the red planet three days later.

Second attempt

This is the second once Europe heads to Mars. in 2003 successfully launched Mars Express, which met its scientific mission.

But the small module British landing Beagle 2 released by Mars Express never gave signs of life. It was located, eleven years later, partially deployed on the planet’s surface.

The Schiaparelli module-which named after the Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli nineteenth century, famous for have observed the so-called “channels” Mars -., weighs 600 kilos and has the dimensions of a small car

in the absence of solar panels, life it will be between two and four days. It is equipped with a basic weather station.

Once launched the lander, the TGO probe will enter an elliptical orbit and will decrease its speed to settle into a circular orbit 400 km altitude.

by the end of 2017 will begin its scientific work. Equipped with European instruments and Russians, “TGO will be like a big nose in space” illustrates Jorge Vago.

Seek trace gases in the planet’s atmosphere, especially those based on carbon, such as methane.

This gas is of particular interest to scientists because Earth appears in 90% of the biological origins . Moreover, their life have a limited duration.

Consequently, its eventual detection by TGO could be a possible index of the current presence of a life at the level of microorganisms on Mars.

Microorganisms and clay

the probe will examine whether the gas “is of biological origin or well if it is the result of a geological process,” says Vago.

the TGO will also serve as a central telecommunications relay between Earth and the robot ExoMars 2018.

latter drilling will handle the soil of Mars until about two meters deep and collecting samples to be analyzed in the same place. In the area you explore are very ancient clays.

The hope is to find traces of organic molecules that could have been found on Mars “makes about 4,000 million years when its surface was more or less the Earth, at the time when life appeared on our planet, “Vago said.

as for Exomars 2018, could delayed two years, according to the director of the ESA, Jan Wörner.

This means that the presuesto of the two ExoMars missions currently 1,200 million euros over 20 years (2002-2022 ), you will need an increase.