*** Welcome to piglix ***

ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter

Trace Gas Orbiter
ExoMars 2016 TGO and EDM trans-small.png
Artist's illustration of ExoMars 2016
Mission type Mars orbiter
Operator ESA · Roscosmos
COSPAR ID 2016-017A
SATCAT no. 41388
Website http://exploration.esa.int/jump.cfm?oid=46475
Mission duration Planned: 7 years
Elapsed: 1 year, 7 days
Spacecraft properties
Manufacturer Thales Alenia Space
Launch mass 3,755 kg (8,278 lb)
Payload mass Instruments: 113.8 kg (251 lb)
Schiaparelli: 577 kg (1,272 lb)
Dimensions 3.2 × 2 × 2 m (10.5 × 6.6 × 6.6 ft)
Power ~2000 W
Start of mission
Launch date 14 March 2016, 09:31 (2016-03-14UTC09:31) UTC
Rocket Proton-M/Briz-M
Launch site Baikonur 200/39
Contractor Khrunichev
Orbital parameters
Reference system Areocentric
Regime Circular
Eccentricity 0
Periareion 400 km (250 mi)
Apoareion 400 km (250 mi)
Inclination 74 degrees
Period 2 hours
Epoch planned
Mars orbiter
Orbital insertion 19 October 2016, 15:24 UTC

ExoMars 2016 insignia.png
ESA mission insignia for the ExoMars 2016 launch, featuring the Trace Gas Orbiter (left) and Schiaparelli (right).

ExoMars programme

ExoMars 2016 insignia.png
ESA mission insignia for the ExoMars 2016 launch, featuring the Trace Gas Orbiter (left) and Schiaparelli (right).

The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) is a collaborative project between the European Space Agency (ESA) and Roscosmos that sent an atmospheric research orbiter and the Schiaparelli demonstration lander to Mars in 2016 as part of the European-led ExoMars programme.

The Trace Gas Orbiter delivered the Schiaparelli lander and will start atmospheric mapping in 2017. A key goal is to gain a better understanding of methane (CH
4
) and other trace gases present in the Martian atmosphere that could be evidence for possible biological activity. The programme will follow with the Surface Science Platform and the ExoMars rover in 2020, which will search for biomolecules and biosignatures; the TGO will operate as the communication link for the 2020 ExoMars rover and surface science platform and provide communication for other Mars surface probes with Earth. The lander's radio signal was lost during the descent through the Mars atmosphere and later the lander was confirmed to have crashed.

Investigations with space and Earth-based observatories have demonstrated the presence of a small amount of methane on the atmosphere of Mars that seems to vary with location and time. This may indicate the presence of microbial life on Mars, or a geochemical process such as volcanism or hydrothermal activity.


...
Wikipedia

...