ESA probe to land on Mars
The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Schiaparelli probe is due to land on Mars later today after a seven-month journey through space.
The probe is part of the ExoMars mission and will attempt to land on the Red Planet after a journey of 500 million kilometres to gather weather data and send back a science package to Earth. The machine’s non-rechargeable battery is expected to last between two and eight sols.
Speaking to the BBC, Mark McCaughrean, ESA’s senior science advisor, said: “Everybody’s optimistic but you can sense the tension as well. I think as the hours tick by now towards that moment – to those six minutes as we plummet through the atmosphere – there’s going to be a lot more nerves. But we’re going to do this because it teaches us hard lessons about how to operate in space.”
The Schiaparelli robot is primarily being used as a technology demonstrator for ESA, which plans to launch a more expansive Mars rover mission in 2021 in conjunction with Russian space agency Roscosmos. The robot will test a combination of a heatshield, a parachute and a rocket cluster to decelerate to 0km/h at two metres above the surface.
