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Showing posts with the label Russia- EU Space cooperation

Is there life on Mars? Russia and Europe to look ( Source- Russia & India Report / Author- SVETLANA ARKHANGELSKAYA, RIR)

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 a