ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter & EDM Schiaparelli lander
Launch SuccessfulLaunch Details
Date: 14 Mar 2016, 09:31 am UTC
Rocket: Proton-M Briz-M (Proton / UR-500)
Provider: Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center
Mission
Type: Planetary Science
Orbit: Heliocentric N/A
Pad: 200/39 (200L), Baikonur Cosmodrome, Republic of Kazakhstan
Mission Description
This is the first part of ESA’s and Roscosmos’s Mars exploration programme (ExoMars). The launch in the 2016 Mars window will consist of an orbiter and lander and will take 7 months to travel to Mars. The Trace Gas Orbiter will search for trace gases in the atmosphere such as methane and hydrogen. The Schiaparelli lander will travel with the orbiter until each reaches Mars, where it will attempt to descend through the atmosphere and land on the surface. The lander only contains a small array of scientific instruments, to conduct experiments over 4 Martian days.