The first of two joint ESA-Roscosmos missions to Mars has started its seven-month journey to the Red Planet. It is hoped that the mission will provide answers to the unsolved mysteries surrounding the atmosphere on Mars, which in turn could reveal geological or even biological activity on the planet's surface.
The Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and the Schiaparelli entry, descent and landing demonstrator launched on a Proton-M rocket that was operated by Russia's Roscosmos at 09:31 GMT (10:31 CET) yesterday morning from Baikonur, Kazakhstan.
After the separation of the Proton-M's first and second stages, the third stage separated around 10 minutes after the initial launch.
Signals from the spacecraft were received at ESA's control center in Darmstadt, Germany, via the Malindi ground-tracking station in Africa about 11 hours after launch, which confirmed the success of the the launch and indicates that the spacecraft is in good standing.
"It's been a long journey getting the first ExoMars mission to the launch pad," said ESA Director General Johann-Dietrich Woerner. "But thanks to the hard work and dedication of our international teams, a new era of Mars exploration is now within our reach."
In the same statement, Igor Komarov, general director of the Roscosmos State Space Corporation, said, "Only the process of collaboration produces the best technical solutions for great research results. Roscosmos and ESA are confident of the mission's success."
The TGO and Schiaparelli will voyage to Mars together until they separate on Oct. 16, approximately 559,234 miles away from the planet. Then, on Oct. 19, Schiaparelli will enter Mars' atmosphere, landing on the planet's surface in just under six minutes.
Schiaparelli will model key entry, descent and landing technologies for future missions, conducting environmental studies through its exploration of the Martian surface. The TGO will analyze methane and other atmospheric gases to determine where they are coming from.
Methane is created by biological or geological activity, and it breaks down in a relatively short period of time upon reaching the atmosphere.
"It cannot be older than 400 years. That means there has been either biological or geological activity in this timeframe," explained Paolo Ferri, ESA's head of mission operations. "Four hundred years is nothing. If there is methane it means there is basically a process going on now."
The prospect of finding life on Mars has long excited scientists, but so far nothing has been discovered. "The fact that they've not found life doesn't mean certainly that there's no life there, considering that much of the planet's vast surface hasn't yet been closely examined," Ferri said.
Landing a spacecraft on Mars is famously challenging, and several historic attempts have failed. These attempts have included ESA's Beagle 2 probe in 2003, which disappeared during the landing process. In order to avoid the same error, the agency made the decision to separate the orbiter mission (TGO) from the actual landing attempt (Schiaparelli).
Watch the ExoMars launch below:
