Sentences with phrase «gas orbiter mission»
«This is a major milestone for our ExoMars programme, and a fantastic achievement for Europe,» says Pia Mitschdoerfer, Trace Gas Orbiter mission manager.
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The initial 2016 phase of the mission would carry an orbiter designed to sniff out possible sources of methane and other trace gases that might signal the presence of microbial life on Mars.
The first ExoMars mission, the Trace Gas Orbiter, launched this past March, and will attempt to nail down the existence and source of methane gas, which has mysteriously come and gone over the yeaGas Orbiter, launched this past March, and will attempt to nail down the existence and source of methane gas, which has mysteriously come and gone over the yeagas, which has mysteriously come and gone over the years.
The story begins with a 2008 agreement between NASA and ESA to share the costs of sending the Trace Gas Orbiter to Mars in a 2016 mission, followed by a European rover and a U.S. rover in 2018.
Its Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), the first prong of a multipart ExoMars mission, appears to have been captured into its planned orbit around Mars and is working normally.
Meanwhile, ESA reports that the Trace Gas Orbiter — the main scientific rationale for the ExoMars 2016 mission — is in good health, and is set to begin slowly lowering the altitude of its orbit so that it can begin looking for methane and other gases that could signal life on Mars.
The Nili Fossae region is important to the ExoMars 2016 TGO mission as it is thought to be one of the potential source regions for transient methane gas in the Martian atmosphere that the other instruments on the orbiter is hoping to detect, characterize and determine its origins.
Scheduled to arrive at the planet Mars this October, this first part of the ExoMars program, consisting of an orbiter and lander, will search for gases in the Martian atmosphere that could indicate signatures of active biological or geological processes, while also testing key entry, descent and landing technologies to support future ESA missions to Mars.