ESA says robot explorers headed for Mars quest

PanARMENIAN.Net - Europe will send a tiny lander on a scorching, supersonic tumble to Mars on Wednesday, October 19 and place a gas-sniffing probe in orbit around the Red Planet in a daring quest with Russia for extraterrestrial life, AFP reports.

High-stakes manoeuvres should see a test lander dubbed Schiaparelli make a dangerous dash for the surface at 1442 GMT, while the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) enters a gravity loop around our planetary neighbour.

The pair have made a 496-million-kilometre (308 million-mile) trek from Earth since their launch in March.

They comprise phase one of the ExoMars mission through which Europe and Russia seek to join the United States in roaming the hostile Martian surface.

Commands for both spacecraft have already been uploaded, the European Space Agency (ESA) said on Tuesday, and were "ready for execution" on Wednesday.

"All is well for the moment," Schiaparelli manager Thierry Blancquart told AFP.

Apart from carrying Schiaparelli towards Mars, the TGO's job will be to test the Red Planet's atmosphere for gases possibly excreted by living organisms, however small or primitive.

Paddling pool-sized Schiaparelli, in turn, must test entry and landing technology for a subsequent Mars-drilling rover which will mark the second phase and high point of ExoMars.

The first manoeuvre on Wednesday, scheduled for 1304 GMT, will see the TGO execute its most critical command to date -- starting a more than two hour-long engine burn to slow down and allow itself to be captured by Mars' gravity, AFP says.

Schiaparelli will execute its own daredevil mission shortly thereafter.

The 600-kilogramme (1,300-pound) craft's hairy ride through Mars' thin, carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere should last six minutes, with touchdown scheduled for 1448 GMT on a spot near the equator.

A discardable "aeroshell" will protect Schiaparelli against a heat of several thousand degrees Celsius generated by atmospheric drag, while a supersonic parachute and nine thrusters will brake it.

A crushable structure in the lander's belly is meant to cushion the final impact.