The module Schiaparelli will enter today in Mars and land on its surface by a maneuver too complex to test the technology of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Russian Roscosmos in the mission ExoMars.
The module will split the Sunday of the Orbiter of Trace Gases at a distance of 900 thousand kilometers of the planet where it will seek to verify if there is or there was life bacterial type, since in its origin Mars had conditions similar to Earth.
drop Test
The function Schiaparelli is primarily to demonstrate new technologies european descent, and landing, in particular the control of the orientation and speed in contact with the surface.
From the Sunday sail in the hibernation mode to reduce its consumption of electricity. It will be activated a few hours before entering the atmosphere, at an altitude of 121 miles, and go braking with a heat shield aerodynamic.
The entry in the atmosphere is planned for 14:42 GMT (8:42 time of Mexico), according to ESA.
three minutes after you started the descent, when the speed of the module is braking up to a thousand 650 km/h and is located 11 kilometers on the surface, it will deploy a parachute.
Schiaparelli, named in honour of the Italian astronomer, will test during the entry, a heat shield, which is more coarse if the input occurs in the middle of a sand storm, a parachute supersonic of 12 meters of diameter and systems guidance, navigation and control, as well as a structure deformable to landing, according to ESA.
At four minutes after initiating the descent, at an altitude of 72 miles, is separated from the frontal shield and turn on the radar. Five minutes later, 1.2 kilometres of the surface and at a speed of 240 km/h, it should fall off of the parachute.
Later on it will activate a helix of ignition and it will continue to decline until the landing.
Other activities
During the descent Schiaparelli will draw 15 images in black-and-white approach to the surface, which will help to reconstruct the trajectory and the movement of the module. The camera will start taking pictures when you are 3 miles from the ground and will do so in intervals of 1.5 seconds.
you will Land in an area near the equator of Mars known as Meridian Planum, and you get, for example, the first measurements of the electromagnetic field on the surface of Mars and of the concentration of atmospheric dust.
The project has two missions, the first was the launch of ExoMars on the 14th of march with the Orbiter of Trace Gases and Schiaparelli and the second will be the landing of a rover in 2021.
Sunday Schiaparelli was separated from the Orbiter of Trace Gases, whose trajectory was corrected on the Monday for not colisionara with Mars, but to reach orbit, at an altitude of 400 kilometers above its surface from which to analyze its atmosphere, particularly the methane gas, but also others such as water vapour, or oxides of nitrogen.
The phase of the science of the orbiter will last a martian year, equivalent to 687 earth days. The Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia participates in the science of the mission with the instrument Nomad, which is to study the methane gas.
[click on the image to enlarge]
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