Robot lander prepares for touchdown in mission to seek out life on the Red Planet
ExoMars lander will slam into the Martian atmosphere and float down on a parachute after 310m-mile voyage
A EUROPEAN spacecraft is ready to send a robot lander to the surface of Mars after a 310million-mile voyage across the solar system.
Controllers today uploaded time-saved command signals to the ExoMars 2016 craft in preparation for landing on the Red Planet on October 19.
The European Space Agency probe, part of an ambitious mission to search for evidence of life on Mars, was launched on March 14.
On October 16 the small Schiaparelli lander will split off from the mother ship and begin its descent.
Three days later, Trace Gas Orbiter probe will fire its brakes to slow it down just enough so it enters an elliptical orbit around the planet - while Schiaparelli enters the Martian atmosphere and parachutes down to the surface.
The 8ft wide disc-shaped craft will aim for Meridiani Planum, a flat region near the equator.
Its main mission is to pave the way for ExoMars Rover, a British-built hi-tech six-wheeled mobile laboratory due to be launched in 2020.
Schiaparelli will test the Rover's Russian-made descent and landing system - which employs a heat shield, parachute, and retro rockets to provide a soft landing.
Schiaparelli's command sequences are time-saved to ensure the lander can carry out its mission even when out of contact.
During the landing, the computer will eject the front and back aeroshells, operate descent sensors, deploy the braking parachute, and activate three groups of hydrazine retro rockets.
At around 6.5ft above the surface, Schiaparelli will hover briefly before cutting its retro thrusters and dropping to the ground.
Once down, it is programmed to keep its scientific instruments running for at least two days.
Sensors will record wind speed, humidity, pressure and temperature at the landing site - and take electric field measurements that may shed light on how Martian dust storms are triggered.
Orbiter flight director Michel Denis said: "Uploading the command sequences is a milestone that was achieved following a great deal of intense cooperation between the mission control team and industry specialists."
Meanwhile the Trace Gas Orbiter will play a key role in the ExoMars mission as it circles the planet looking for rare gases in the atmosphere including methane - which can only come from an active source.
The probe will tell scientists whether Martian methane is most likely to have a geological or biological origin.
On Earth, the gas is chiefly generated by billions of bacteria, many of which live in the guts of animals such as cows.
But it can also be released by the breakdown of organic molecules deep underground or volcanic activity.
The two-stage £1 billion joint European and Russian ExoMars mission is equipped to uncover the first clear evidence of past or present life on Mars.
The main mission in 2020 will carry a British-designed rover, built by Airbus Defence and Space at its UK headquarters in Stevenage.
It will rove across the surface to drill samples from the Martian soil and analyse them for biochemical signatures of either long-dead or still living organisms.
Scientists have not ruled out the possibility that bugs may survive beneath the planet's radiation-baked surface.
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