A joint European and Russian
mission to Mars will launch in January 2016, one of the
mission's major contractors announced Wednesday.
The Exobiology on Mars (ExoMars) mission will search for
signs of Martian life, past or present. It is being developed by
the European Space Agency (ESA) in collaboration with the
Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) to the tune of one
billion euros, according to some sources.
The two-part mission launching in 2016 and 2018 will among
many other tasks search for methane and other gases that could
be signatures of active biological or geological processes.
"Our launch window is from January 7-26, 2016," said Walter
Cugno, who directs the ExoMars program at Thales Alenia Space.
The French-Italian aerospace company owned by
Alcatel-Lucent (67%) and Finmeccanica (33%) is Europe's largest
satellite manufacturer.
It is building a robotic orbiter-carrier called the
ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) which will deliver an EDM
stationary lander, named 'Schiaparelli' after the 19th-century
Italian astronomer who first described the surface of Mars.
It is also building an Entry, Descent and Landing
Demonstrator Module (EDM) in a super-clean room - the only one
of its kind in Europe - to reduce the risk of carrying Earth
bacteria to Mars as much as possible.
The ESA announced the joint mission in March 2013, saying
it will provide the TGO and the EDM in 2016, and the carrier and
rover in 2018.
The lead builder of the ExoMars rover is the British
division of Airbus Defence and Space, while the wheels and
suspension are reportedly being paid for by the Canadian Space
Agency and manufactured by MDA Corporation in Canada.
Roscosmos will be responsible for the 2018 descent module
and surface platform, and will provide launchers for both
missions.
Both partners will supply scientific instruments and will
cooperate closely in the scientific exploitation of the
missions, according to the ESA.
Italy is the largest European contributor to ExoMars,
followed by the UK, Poland and Romania.
The Russians were invited in after NASA pulled out of the
ExoMars mission in 2012, citing a budgeting crisis.
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