LIVE: Proton-M ESA ExoMars I (Trace Gas Orbiter/EDM) - March 14 2016 (09:31 UTC)

[Steven Pietrobon]

Congratulations to ESA, Thales Alenia Space, Roscosmos and Khrunichev for the successful launch!

Thanks also to the NSF members for the updates during night here.

[darkenfast]

Congrats to the Proton team for getting this very important launch off so well!  Condolences to the two birds at the launch pad who probably are deaf, if not fried (slow down the first Russian video to see).  Interesting how long they keep the fairing on (almost six minutes).

[jacqmans]

Press release, 14 March 2016

Next stop, the Red Planet - ExoMars 2016 launched to search for traces of life

On 14 March 2016 at 10:31 CET, the ExoMars 2016 mission of the European Space Agency, ESA, and the Russian Federal Space Agency, Roscosmos, lifted off from the Russian Cosmodrome in Baikonur towards Mars. On board the Proton rocket were the Trace Gas
Orbiter (TGO) and the Schiaparelli landing demonstrator (Entry, Descent and Landing Demonstrator Module; EDM). After separating from the launcher upper stage almost 11 hours after launch, the spacecraft duo transmitted their first signal to the ground
at 22:29 CET. "This mission came about through close cooperation between governments, industry and science. It will continue the search for traces of life on Mars and also test new technologies," said Pascale Ehrenfreund, Chair of the Executive Board
of the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum fuer Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR). In a follow-up mission scheduled for launch in 2018, a rover will be delivered to the surface of the Red Planet. DLR's Space Administration is supporting the ExoMars
2016 and 2018 missions by coordinating the German contributions for ESA. Also involved in the ExoMars 2016 mission are the DLR Institute of Aerodynamics and Flow Technology, the DLR Institute of Planetary Research and (prior to the mission itself)
the DLR Institute of Aerospace Medicine.

Journey to the Red Planet

"With the successful launch of the ExoMars mission, a new chapter has begun for European planetary research under the leadership of ESA. Following Mars Express and successful contributions to international planetary missions, German scientists and
engineers are also excited at the prospect of the spacecraft's flight and its arrival at the Red Planet," said Ehrenfreund. After the launch and deployment of the solar panels and the communications antenna, the TGO and Schiaparelli will fly together
through interplanetary space in the direction of Mars for approximately seven months. Three days before arrival, Schiaparelli will separate from the TGO, which will then enter an orbit 400 kilometres above the surface of Mars. "Schiaparelli will initially
continue its flight in deep hibernation, until it is woken up again a few hours before entering the Martian atmosphere. Upon entry, the landing capsule will be decelerated from approximately 21,000 to around 1650 kilometres per hour by aerodynamic
drag. Its heat shield will protect it from burning up; during braking, extreme temperatures are generated – around 1500 degrees Celsius," says Oliver Angerer, Team Leader for Exploration at the DLR Space Administration. A parachute will further slow
down the craft, until it is jettisoned at an altitude of just over one kilometre. Thrusters will take care of the final speed reduction. Two metres above the surface, they will be switched off and Schiaparelli will fall the rest of the way, a landing
test for the follow-up mission ExoMars 2018.

Schiaparelli – lander with DLR sensors and weather station

Landing on Mars is still a major challenge. Schiaparelli will test different technologies that will help the rover of the ExoMars 2018 mission perform a safe landing – materials for the heat shield, a parachute, a radar altimeter and an thruster system
for the final landing phase. During the flight through the atmosphere, the four COMARS+ sensors (COMbined Aerothermal and Radiometer Sensor) that were developed by DLR's Institute of Aerodynamics and Flow Technology in Cologne, will continuously measure
heat flow, gas radiation, pressure and the surface temperature at the rear of the heat shield. "This valuable flight data will play a key role in improving future landing capsules and reconstructing the atmospheric parameters along the flight path,"
said Ali Guelhan, who will evaluate the collected data in Cologne together with his colleagues. After it has landed, Schiaparelli will only be active on the surface of the Red Planet for a few days. In that period, primarily data collected during the
landing will be transmitted. However, since the scientists are also interested in the climate of Earth's neighbouring planet, a 'weather station' is installed on Schiaparelli. The DREAMS package (Dust Characterisation, Risk Assessment and Environment
Analyser on the Martian Surface) will measure, for example, wind speed, humidity and pressure on the surface of the Red Planet and provide the scientists with a 'Mars weather report' that will help in the planning of future missions.

TGO – spacecraft searching for trace gases

While Schiaparelli collects data on the Martian surface, the TGO will orbit the Red Planet to examine the atmosphere with its four instruments at an altitude of approximately 400 kilometres. Above all, the scientists are interested in methane. This
trace gas can arise through geological and also biological processes and therefore may provide indications of life. The European Mars Express spacecraft has already detected small quantities of methane; TGO has the task of tracing the sources. For
this purpose, the Nadir and Occultation for Mars Discovery (NOMAD) instrument – a spectrometer suite covering infrared, visible and ultraviolet wavelengths – will precisely measure the composition of the Martian atmosphere. The Atmospheric Chemistry
Suite (ACS) extends the measurement range of NOMAD with three further infrared spectrometers, while the Fine Resolution Epithermal Neutron Detector (FREND) will map hydrogen-abundant regions on the Red Planet down to a depth of one metre. The Colour
and Stereo Surface Imaging System (CaSSIS) will provide high-resolution colour and stereo images of the surface of Mars. CaSSIS will also create individual 3D stereo images of interesting areas, for example in potential source regions for trace gases,
and thus support NOMAD and ACS. "If NOMAD finds increased trace gas concentrations, we will carefully examine the relevant areas with CaSSIS for any indications of geological activity. If, for example, we see any signs of volcanic activity, that will
be an indication of geological formation of methane," explained Ernst Hauber from the DLR Institute of Planetary Research. He is a member of the international science team and will assess the CaSSIS data and therefore the geological information with
his colleagues from Berlin.

ExoMars 2018 – a quick look ahead

In 2018, the second ExoMars mission will be dispatched to the Red Planet. It will deliver a rover onto the Martian surface and also carry an instrument package with it on the landing platform. One part of the scientific payload on the rover is the
Panoramic Camera (PanCam). One component of that system is a high-resolution stereo camera developed by the DLR Institute of Planetary Research.  Also, for the first time the rover will take samples from a depth of up to two metres with a drill. Because
the surface of Mars is currently very hostile to life, deep samples are more likely to contain traces of life.

Industrial participation

The core module of the TGO spacecraft, that is the structure, propulsion system, thermal system and the central elements of the electrical harness, was the responsibility of Bremen-based OHB-System AG.  Airbus Defence & Spaceconstructed Schiaparelli's
heat shield and thrusters, among other things. TGO was integrated by Thales Alenia Space in Cannes, France, and underwent a rigorous test campaign there before beginning its journey from there via Baikonur to the Red Planet.

[jacqmans]

Press Release
N°07-2016

Paris, 14 March 2016

The first of two joint ESA-Roscosmos missions to Mars has begun a seven-month journey to the Red Planet, where it will address unsolved mysteries of the planet's atmosphere that could indicate present-day geological - or even biological - activity.

The Trace Gas Orbiter and the Schiaparelli entry, descent and landing demonstrator lifted off on a Proton-M rocket operated by Russia's Roscosmos at 09:31 GMT (10:31 CET) this morning from Baikonur, Kazakhstan. 

Following separation of Proton's first and second stages, the payload fairing was released. The third stage separated nearly 10 minutes after liftoff. 

The Breeze-M upper stage, with ExoMars attached, then completed a series of four burns before the spacecraft was released at 20:13 GMT (21:13 CET). 

Signals from the spacecraft, received at ESA's control centre in Darmstadt, Germany via the Malindi ground tracking station in Africa at 21:29 GMT (22:29 CET), confirmed that the launch was successful and the spacecraft is in good health.

The orbiter's solar wings have also now unfolded and the craft is on its way to Mars.

"It's been a long journey getting the first ExoMars mission to the launch pad, but thanks to the hard work and dedication of our international teams, a new era of Mars exploration is now within our reach," says Johann-Dietrich Woerner, ESA's Director
General.

"I am grateful to our Russian partner, who have given this mission the best possible start today. Now we will explore Mars together."

Igor Komarov, General Director of the Roscosmos State Space Corporation, adds, "Only the process of collaboration produces the best technical solutions for great research results. Roscosmos and ESA are confident of the mission's success."

"We're not only looking forward to the world-class science data that this mission will return, but it is also significant in paving the way for the second ExoMars mission, which will move our expertise from in-orbit observations to surface and subsurface
exploration of Mars," says Alvaro Giménez, ESA's Director of Science.

The Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and Schiaparelli will travel to Mars together before separating on 16 October at distance of 900 000 km from the planet. 

Then, on 19 October, Schiaparelli will enter the martian atmosphere, descending to the surface in just under six minutes. 

Schiaparelli will demonstrate key entry, descent and landing technologies for future missions, and will conduct a number of environmental studies during its short mission on the surface. 

For example, it will obtain the first measurements of electric fields on the surface of Mars that, combined with measurements of the concentration of atmospheric dust, will provide new insights into the role of electric forces on dust lifting - the
trigger for dust storms.

Meanwhile, on the same day, TGO will enter an elliptical four-day orbit around Mars, taking it from about 300 km at its nearest to around 96 000 km at its furthest point. 

After a year of complex 'aerobraking', during which the spacecraft will use the planet's atmosphere to lower its orbit slowly to a circular 400 km, its scientific mission to analyse rare gases in the atmosphere will begin. 

Of particular interest is methane, which on Earth, points to active geological or biological processes. 

One of the mission's key goals is to follow up on the methane detection made by ESA's Mars Express in 2004 to understand the processes at play in its generation and destruction, with an improved accuracy of three orders of magnitude over previous measurements.

TGO will also image features on the surface that may be related to trace-gas sources such as volcanoes. In addition, it will be able to detect buried water-ice deposits, which, along with locations identified as sources of the trace gases, could influence
the choice of landing sites of future missions.

The orbiter will also act as a data relay for the second ExoMars mission, comprising a rover and stationary surface science platform, which is scheduled for launch in May 2018, arriving in early 2019.

[asmi]

Roscosmos has published his "ESA-style" live broadcast (with scientists, experts, etc):


And a special for our friend from Bulgaria

[Satori]

You can follow the mission at http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=31368.0