Is there life on Mars? Russia and Europe to look ( Source- Russia & India Report / Author- SVETLANA ARKHANGELSKAYA, RIR)
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| Russian Proton-M rocket ( Image credits- Wikimedia Commons/ Flickr) |
Source- Russia & India Report
Authors-SVETLANA ARKHANGELSKAYA, RIR
A Proton-M rocket with Russian and European instruments on board lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakstan at 12:31 p.m. on March 14. The primary aim of the mission is to find methane on the Mars, the red planet. Methane is often an indicator of primitive biological life. The rocket will also attempt to develop technologies for a soft landing amid dust storms.
The launch date was not selected at random. March 2016 is when Mars and the Earth are at their closest, around 55 million kilometres from each other, as opposed to the normal average distance of 225 million kilometres.
"This period is a 'window' of sorts,'' said Dr. Igor Mitrofanov, director of the department of nuclear planetology at the Institute of Space Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences. “This occurs once every two years and 50 days. The next time it will be possible to travel to Mars will only be in 2018. That's when the second stage of the ExoMars project will take place."
Methane is the key
The aim of the 11 Russian and three European instruments fixed aboard the orbital and landing devices is to study the atmosphere of Mars in more detail and find possible signs of life, like methane. This gas often has biological origins; more than 90 percent of the methane on Earth is derived from biological sources.
"We might find oases in which primitive creatures still exist, having developed there billions of years ago," Mitrofanov said.
"Up until now, all attempts to find methane were conducted with devices of limited sensitivity, but now much more powerful instruments are on their way to Mars, and with precision 100 times more powerful,'' said Dr. Alexander Tokhimovsky, a specialist at the Institute of Space Research. “We will really be able to determine whether or not methane is present and in what amount. Then, we can make our conclusions.''
The first stage of the mission will take about seven months. The Proton-M will reach Mars in the middle of October and, three days before entering the planet's atmosphere, the Schiaparelli landing module will be released from the Orbiter, after which it will descend to the Red Planet's surface.
Partners in the mission
The cost of the ExoMars mission is estimated at 1 billion euros and includes two stages; ExoMars-2016, and ExoMars-2018. During the first stage, Russia provided the rocket-carrier and half the scientific instruments for the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), while the European Space Agency supplied the TGO itself, and the Schiaparelli lander.
For the TGO, Russia prepared the Atmospheric Chemistry Suite (ACS), which will study the chemical composition and atmospheric structure of Mars, and the Fine Resolution Epithermal Neutron Detector (FREND), which will search for hydrogen and deposits of water ice. The Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology helped develop the data processing algorithms for analyzing the atmosphere in the ACS.
"Our system will remotely examine the content of the gases from orbit, as well as the temperature and the clouds, just as it is done with the Earth's meteorological satellites," said Dr. Oleg Korablev, scientific director of the ACS system. "The Schiaparelli lander will help develop technologies for a soft landing in dust storms. It is necessary to see how it will react in extreme conditions."
Korablev said the TGO has clear scientific objectives and, with the help of Russian instruments, will study the planet's atmosphere. It will remain on Mars until 2022.
Original link to the article- http://in.rbth.com/economics/technology/2016/03/16/is-there-life-on-mars-russia-and-europe-to-look_576101
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