“The Orbital ATK Cygnus cargo craft launched from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket March 22, carrying almost 7,500 pounds of food, supplies and science experiments for the six crew members aboard the International Space Station. Dubbed the “SS Rick Husband” in honor of the late commander of Columbia’s final flight, STS-107, that ended with Columbia’s breakup over Texas in February 2003.
The Orbital ATK Cygnus cargo craft […] arrived at the International Space Station March 26.”
“Expedition 47-48 Soyuz Commander Alexey Ovchinin and Flight Engineers Oleg Skripochka of Roscosmos and Jeff Williams of NASA launched on the Russian Soyuz TMA-20M spacecraft on March 19, Kazakh time, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to begin a six-hour journey to the International Space Station and the start of a six-month mission on the ISS.
[…]Expedition 47-48 Soyuz Commander Alexey Ovchinin and Flight Engineers Oleg Skripochka of Roscosmos and Jeff Williams of NASA arrived at the International Space Station on Mar. 19. The new crewmembers will join station Commander Tim Kopra of NASA and Flight Engineers Yuri Malenchenko of Roscosmos and Tim Peake of the European Space Agency, already onboard the station”
“ExoMars (Exobiology on Mars) Programme is an astrobiology project to investigate the past habitability environment of Mars and to demonstrate new technologies paving the way for a future Mars sample return mission in the 2020s.
The programme is led by the European Space Agency (ESA) in collaboration with the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos). The programme will search for biosignatures of Martian life, past or present, employing several spacecraft elements to be sent to Mars on two launches. The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and a test stationary lander called Schiaparelli were launched on 14 March 2016. The TGO will deliver Schiaparelli lander in 19 October 2016, and then proceed to map the sources of methane on Mars and other gases. The TGO features four instruments and will also act as a communications relay satellite.
The Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) is a Mars telecommunications orbiter and atmospheric gas analyzer mission that was launched on 14 March 2016. The spacecraft will arrive in the Martian orbit in October 2016. It will deliver the ExoMars Schiaparelli EDM lander and then proceed to map the sources of methane on Mars and other gases, and in doing so, help select the landing site for the ExoMars rover to be launched in 2018. The presence of methane in Mars’ atmosphere is intriguing because its likely origin is either present-day life or geological activity. Upon the arrival of the rover in 2021, the orbiter would be transferred into a lower orbit where it would be able to perform analytical science activities as well as provide the Schiaparelli EDM lander and ExoMars rover with telecommunication relay. NASA provided an Electra telecommunications relay and navigation instrument to ensure communications between probes and rovers on the surface of Mars and controllers on Earth. The TGO would continue serving as a telecommunication relay satellite for future landed missions until 2022.
The Entry, Descent and Landing Demonstrator Module (EDM) called Schiaparelli, is intended to provide the European Space Agency (ESA) and Russia’s Roscosmos with the technology for landing on the surface of Mars. It was launched together with the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) on 14 March 2016 and will land on 19 October 2016. The lander is equipped with a non-rechargeable electric battery with enough power for four sols. The landing will take place on Meridiani Planum during the dust storm season, which will provide a unique chance to characterize a dust-loaded atmosphere during entry and descent, and to conduct surface measurements associated with a dust-rich environment.
Once on the surface, it will measure the wind speed and direction, humidity, pressure and surface temperature, and determine the transparency of the atmosphere. It carries a surface payload, based on the proposed meteorological DREAMS (Dust Characterization, Risk Assessment, and Environment Analyser on the Martian Surface) package, consists of a suite of sensors to measure the wind speed and direction (MetWind), humidity (MetHumi), pressure (MetBaro), surface temperature (MarsTem), the transparency of the atmosphere (Optical Depth Sensor; ODS), and atmospheric electrification (Atmospheric Radiation and Electricity Sensor; MicroARES). The DREAMS payload will function for 2 or 3 days as an environmental station for the duration of the EDM surface mission after landing”
“Animation visualizing milestones during the launch of the ExoMars 2016 mission and its cruise to Mars. The mission comprises the Trace Gas Orbiter and an entry, descent and landing demonstrator module, Schiaparelli, which are scheduled to be launched on a four-stage Proton-M/Breeze-M rocket from Baikonur during the 14–25 March 2016 window.
About ten-and-a-half hours after launch, the spacecraft will separate from the rocket and deploy its solar wings. Two weeks later, its high-gain antenna will be deployed. After a seven-month cruise to Mars, Schiaparelli will separate from TGO on 16 October. Three days later it will enter the martian atmosphere, while TGO begins its entry into Mars orbit.
[The second animation presents] The paths of the ExoMars 2016 Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and the Schiaparelli entry, descent and landing demonstrator module arriving at Mars on 19 October (right and left, respectively). The counter begins at the start of a critical engine burn that TGO must conduct in order to enter Mars orbit. The altitude above Mars is also indicated, showing the arrival of Schiaparelli on the surface and the subsequent trajectory of TGO. The orbiter’s initial 4-day orbit will be about 250 x 100 000 km. Starting in December 2016, the spacecraft will perform a series of aerobraking manoeuvres to steadily lower it into a circular, 400 km orbit (not shown here).”
Subscribe to blog posts using RSS
