Mission will seek traces of life on Mars will take off on Monday – El Universal

Everything is ready at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for the launch on Monday of the first mission Exomars , a space program that Europe wants to prove is able to land on Mars .

Set if ever there was life in the red planet is a major scientific unknowns, according to the European Space Agency (ESA), which has developed Exomars . to delve into this issue and pave the way for future missions

Exomars includes two missions: the first is a satellite for the study of trace gases (called SGOT) and a demonstrator module entry, descent and landing (called Schiaparelli), while the second incorporates a rover (2018).

in the ESA headquarters in Villanueva de la Cañada (central Spain) Friday presented the first mission, to be launched from Baikonur on March 14 at 09:31 hours GMT.

the main objectives of this mission are looking for signs of methane and other gas trace atmosphere that could imply the existence of biological or geological processes active, and test key technologies, in preparation for ESA contribution in future missions to the red planet.

the satellite module TGO and Schiaparelli travel together-will be thrown into a proton-rocket to Mars.

the cruise phase is expected to be seven months, so it will reach Mars in October. three days after reaching the atmosphere of the red planet, Schiaparelli will be expelled from satellite

at that time, the module will shift to the martian surface, entering the Martian atmosphere at 21,000 mph and decelerating with the help of aerobraking and a parachute.

Your goal is to successfully complete the entry, descent and landing, one of the main challenges to explore Mars.

However, according to Silvia Bayón, systems engineer Exomars for a few days the module will survive and may send scientific data using spare capacity power from its battery (you will send to Earth through NASA satellites).

the TGO satellite will begin its scientific mission in 2017 and will have an initial life of five years (will be set in a circular orbit about 400 kilometers above sea level).

the aim is to try to better understand the origin of methane -hará the most accurate measurements until now and other gases present in the Martian atmosphere in small concentrations but that could reveal activity biological or geological processes.

for ESA astronaut Pedro Duque is a very important project that attracts the attention of all astronauts or to demonstrate that Europe is a valid for future exploration missions partner Mars, and when will be manned, said by videoconference

“Exomars, with an investment of thousand 300 million euros (one billion 433 million dollars.) – show that Europeans are able to land on Mars, carrying loads and do analysis, “summarized the director of science at ESA, Álvaro Giménez, who called the first truly European mission to Mars as” unique and wonderful “.

kal