Tag Archives: ExoMars

ExoMars 2020: To Oxia Planum… or Mawrth Vallis

Posted on March 28, 2017 by rburnham

Two ancient sites on Mars that hosted an abundance of water in the planet’s early history have been recommended as the final candidates for the landing site of the 2020 ExoMars rover and surface science platform: Oxia Planum and Mawrth … Continue reading →

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ExoMars 2020 landing site workshop begins

Posted on March 27, 2017 by rburnham

The 4th ExoMars 2020 Landing Site Selection Workshop will be held on 27 – 28th March 2017 at the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC), Noordwijk, The Netherlands. The two-day workshop will be run by the ExoMars 2020 Landing … Continue reading →

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ExoMars: TGO aerobraking, ‘So far, so good’

Posted on March 24, 2017 by rburnham

Aerobraking progress as of 22 March: To date, periapsis passage speed reduced by 33 cm/sec Still to go: 99,967 cm/sec There’s news from the ExoMars/TGO mission control team at ESOC following the first ten days of the ‘walk-in’ to aerobraking, … Continue reading →

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ExoMars 2020 landing sites will narrow to two

Posted on March 20, 2017 by rburnham

On Monday 27 March, the 4th ExoMars Landing Site Selection Workshop will take place at the European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC), The Netherlands. At the conclusion of the two-day meeting the Landing Site Selection Working Group will make … Continue reading →

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ExoMars: Aerobraking begins as TGO science checkout ends

Posted on March 16, 2017 by rburnham

The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter has completed another set of important science calibration tests before a year of aerobraking gets underway. The mission was launched a year ago this week, and has been orbiting the Red Planet since 19 October. … Continue reading →

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ExoMars: Noctis Labyrinthus stereo pair

Posted on March 15, 2017 by rburnham

ExoMars was launched on a Proton-M rocket from Baikonur, Kazakhstan on 14 March 2016. Around seven months later, it arrived at Mars. As part of preparations for its main science mission to analyse the atmosphere for gases that may be … Continue reading →

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ExoMars: Science checkout continues for orbiter

Posted on February 27, 2017 by rburnham

Next week, the ExoMars orbiter will devote two days to making important calibration measurements at the Red Planet, which are needed for the science phase of the mission that will begin next year. The Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), a joint … Continue reading →

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ExoMars: Angling up for Mars science

Posted on February 7, 2017 by rburnham

ESA’s latest Mars orbiter has moved itself into a new path on its way to achieving the final orbit for probing the Red Planet. The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter arrived last October on a multiyear mission to understand the tiny … Continue reading →

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ExoMars 2016: Skimming an alien atmosphere

Posted on December 16, 2016 by rburnham

After the smooth arrival of ESA’s latest Mars orbiter, mission controllers are now preparing it for the ultimate challenge: dipping into the Red Planet’s atmosphere to reach its final orbit. The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter is on a multiyear mission … Continue reading →

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Full go-ahead for building ExoMars 2020

Posted on December 16, 2016 by rburnham

The first ExoMars mission arrived at the Red Planet in October and now the second mission has been confirmed to complete its construction for a 2020 launch. ESA and Thales Alenia Space signed a contract today [Dec 16, 2016] that … Continue reading →

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