Space mission to find '¨if there is life on Mars

A European spacecraft programmed to sniff out atmospheric evidence of life on Mars has blasted into space.
By The Newsroom
Published 15th Mar 2016, 09:24 BST
Updated 15th Mar 2016, 09:24 BST
The Proton-M rocket booster blasts off at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Monday, March 14, 2016The Proton-M rocket booster blasts off at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Monday, March 14, 2016
The Proton-M rocket booster blasts off at the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Monday, March 14, 2016

Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) was launched into orbit from Kazakhstan yesterday morning by a Russian Proton heavy-lift rocket to begin a seven-month, 300 million-mile journey to the Red Planet.

ExoMars 2016 is the first phase of an historic €1.2 billion (£924 million) joint European-Russian mission to search for biochemical “fingerprints” of past or present life high above Mars and on its surface.

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TGO is equipped with highly sensitive instruments for detecting trace gases in the Martian atmosphere, including methane which can be a sign of life.

On Earth, the gas is chiefly generated by billions of bacteria, many of which live in the guts of animals such as cows and termites. But it can also be released by volcanic activity and other geological processes.

The European Space Agency (ESA) orbiter will tell scientists whether Martian methane is most likely to have a geological or biological source.

Accompanying TGO is a robot lander, Schiaparelli, that is due to parachute down on to a Martian plain in October.

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Its main job will be to test the descent and landing technology for ExoMars 2018, the next stage of the mission which will send a British-built rover to Mars in two years’ time.

Fitted with a drill that can burrow 6ft into the Martian soil, the rover will search for evidence of long-dead or still living microbes underground.

Related topics:MarsEarth