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IPFS News Link • Space Travel and Exploration

How to Watch ExoMars Land on the Red Planet on Wednesday

• http://motherboard.vice.com, by BECKY FERREIRA

Now the ExoMars 2016 mission, a joint project between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Russian space agency Roscosmos, is poised to deliver new insights into this tantalizing mystery.

At the time of this writing, the spacecraft's two main modules, the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and the Schiaparelli lander, are making their final approach to the Red Planet separately, having parted ways on October 16 after a seven-month-long cruise from Earth.

Shortly afterwards, at 10:42 AM, the Schiaparelli lander is scheduled to hurtle into the Martian atmosphere at 13,000 miles per hour, aiming for a landing site within the smooth, flat plains of Meridiani Planum, near the planet's equator.

Over the next six "minutes of terror," to channel the same language used in 2012 by the Mars Curiosity team, the lander will execute its entry, descent, and landing (EDL) sequence, all while reporting updates back to its mothership, the TGO.


www.universityofreason.com/a/29887/KWADzukm