{"id":14953,"date":"2018-04-10T07:41:15","date_gmt":"2018-04-10T07:41:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/?p=14953"},"modified":"2020-05-27T06:00:57","modified_gmt":"2020-05-27T06:00:57","slug":"exomars-poised-to-start-science-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/exomars-poised-to-start-science-mission\/","title":{"rendered":"ExoMars poised to start science mission"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
How to create and destroy methane on Mars<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The ExoMars orbiter will soon begin its search for gases that may be linked to active geological or biological activity on the Red Planet.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Trace Gas Orbiter has reached its final orbit after a year of \u2018aerobraking\u2019 that\u00a0ended in February.<\/a>This exciting operation saw the craft skimming through the very top of the upper atmosphere, using drag on its solar wings to transform its initial highly elliptical four-day orbit of about 200 x 98 000 km into the final, much lower and near-circular path at about 400 km.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is now circling Mars every two hours and, after calibration and installation of new software, it will begin routine scientific observations.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"
Trace Gas Orbiter at Mars<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThis is a major milestone for our ExoMars programme, and a fantastic achievement for Europe,\u201d says Pia Mitschdoerfer, Trace Gas Orbiter mission manager.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have reached this orbit for the first time through aerobraking and with the heaviest orbiter ever sent to the Red Planet, ready to start searching for signs of life from orbit.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe will start our science mission in just a couple of weeks and are extremely excited about what the first measurements will reveal,\u201d says H\u00e5kan Svedhem, the orbiter\u2019s project scientist.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the sensitivity to detect rare gases in minute proportions, with the potential to discover if Mars is still active today \u2013 biologically or geologically speaking.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The primary goal is to take a detailed inventory of\u00a0trace gases<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 those that make up less than 1% of the total volume of the planet\u2019s atmosphere. In particular, the orbiter will seek evidence of methane and other gases that could be signatures of active biological or geological activity.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

On Earth, living organisms release much of the planet\u2019s methane. It is also the main component of naturally occurring hydrocarbon gas reservoirs, and a contribution is also provided by volcanic and hydrothermal activity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Methane on Mars<\/a>\u00a0is expected to have a rather short lifetime \u2013 around 400 years \u2013 because it is broken down by ultraviolet light from the Sun. It also reacts with other species in the atmosphere, and is subject to mixing and dispersal by winds. That means, if it is detected today, it was likely created or released from an ancient reservoir relatively recently.<\/span><\/p>\n

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How ExoMars detects buried ice<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Previous possible detections of methane by ESA\u2019s Mars Express and more recently by NASA\u2019s Curiosity rover have been hinted at, but are still the subject of much debate.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The Trace Gas Orbiter can detect and analyse methane and other trace gases even in extremely low concentrations, with an improved accuracy of three orders of magnitude over previous measurements. It will also be able to\u00a0help distinguish between the different possible origins.<\/span><\/p>\n

The four instruments will make complementary measurements of the atmosphere, surface and subsurface. Its camera will help to characterise features on the surface that may be related to trace-gases sources.<\/span><\/p>\n

Its instruments will also look for water-ice hidden just below the surface, which along with potential trace gas sources could guide the choice for future mission landing sites.<\/span><\/p>\n

It will also soon start providing communication relay for NASA\u2019s Opportunity and Curiosity rovers, ahead of the arrival of NASA\u2019s InSight lander later this year, and for the ExoMars rover and surface science platform in March 2021.<\/span><\/p>\n

Preliminary relay tests with NASA\u2019s rovers were conducted in November 2016, shortly after the orbiter\u2019s arrival at Mars. Eventually, it will provide multiple data relay connections each week.<\/span><\/p>\n

The ExoMars programme is a joint endeavour between ESA and Roscosmos.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The ExoMars orbiter will soon begin its search for gases that may be linked to active geological or biological activity on the Red Planet. The Trace Gas Orbiter has reached its final orbit after a year of \u2018aerobraking\u2019 that\u00a0ended in February.This exciting operation saw the craft skimming through the very top of the upper atmosphere, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":14954,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-space-news"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/How_to_create_and_destroy_methane_on_Mars_large.jpg",625,442,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/How_to_create_and_destroy_methane_on_Mars_large-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/How_to_create_and_destroy_methane_on_Mars_large-300x212.jpg",300,212,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/How_to_create_and_destroy_methane_on_Mars_large.jpg",625,442,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/How_to_create_and_destroy_methane_on_Mars_large.jpg",625,442,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/How_to_create_and_destroy_methane_on_Mars_large.jpg",625,442,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/How_to_create_and_destroy_methane_on_Mars_large.jpg",625,442,false],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/How_to_create_and_destroy_methane_on_Mars_large.jpg",625,442,false],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/How_to_create_and_destroy_methane_on_Mars_large.jpg",625,442,false],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/How_to_create_and_destroy_methane_on_Mars_large.jpg",600,424,false],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/How_to_create_and_destroy_methane_on_Mars_large.jpg",600,424,false],"newspaper-x-single-post":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/How_to_create_and_destroy_methane_on_Mars_large.jpg",625,442,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-big":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/How_to_create_and_destroy_methane_on_Mars_large.jpg",509,360,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-list-image":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/How_to_create_and_destroy_methane_on_Mars_large.jpg",92,65,false],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/How_to_create_and_destroy_methane_on_Mars_large.jpg",625,442,false],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/How_to_create_and_destroy_methane_on_Mars_large.jpg",96,68,false],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/How_to_create_and_destroy_methane_on_Mars_large.jpg",150,106,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Amrita Tuladhar"]},"category_info":"Space\/ AstroPhysics<\/a>","tag_info":"Space\/ AstroPhysics","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}