ExoMars Arrival And Landing Live Stream: ESA-Roscosmos Spacecraft Approaches The Red Planet

[MowCowWhoHow III]

Source: International Business Times

ExoMars — a spacecraft sent to Mars as part of the first phase of a joint mission by the European Space Agency and Russia’s Roscosmos — is just days away from the red planet. The spacecraft, which consists of the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and the Schiaparelli entry, descent and landing demonstrator, will enter into orbit around the red planet on Wednesday after a seven-month journey.

However, the lander's journey begins much sooner. At 10:42 a.m. EDT on Sunday, it will separate from the TGO, and head toward the surface of Mars — a journey that will take three days.

“They [the TGO and the Schiaparelli module] are now on a high-speed collision course with Mars, which is fine for the lander – it will stay on this path to make its controlled landing,” ExoMars flight director Michel Denis at mission control in Darmstadt, Germany, said in a statement Friday. “However, to get the mothership into orbit, we must make a small but vital adjustment on 17 October to ensure it avoids the planet. And on 19 October it must fire its engine at a precise time for 139 minutes to brake into orbit.”

The main objective of the ExoMars mission is to search for evidence of methane — a gas emitted by living microbes on Earth, and traces of which have been observed by previous Mars missions — and other trace atmospheric gases that could be signatures of active biological or geological processes.

Read more: http://www.ibtimes.com/exomars-arrival-landing-live-stream-esa-roscosmos-spacecraft-approaches-red-planet-2432365

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http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/ExoMars/Watch_ExoMars_arrival_and_landing

[longship]

1. Landing on Mars, and remaining intact, is really really difficult.

Gravity is low, but not like the Moon. Atmosphere is thin, so parachutes don't work very well, if at all if your lander has high mass. So many Mars landers didn't make it.

Good luck, ExoMars!