Close
16/03/2016
SENER is back to Mars
The ExoMars 2016 Russo-European mission separated from the launch vehicle to leave the terrestrial orbit and start its long journey to the Red Planet.

The Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) space probe and its lander called Schiaparelli took off at 10.31 am Barcelona time aboard a Russian Proton rocket from the Baikonour cosmodrom in Kazakhstan. They started then a seven-month journey to travel the corresponding 496 million kilometers.

On next October 1, after completing the journey, Schiaparelli lander will separate from TGO probe and will land on Mars three days later. For its part, TGO will reach a circular orbit at a 400 meters altitude. As a noise would do, TGO will search for trace gazes in the Mars atmosphere, especially carbon gases such as methane that can inform about current or past lives.

On that mission and on the ExoMars 2018 following one, SENER whose Catalan headquarters are located in the Barcelona Synchrotron Park, will bring again its technology on Mars (lander and front shield separation mechanism) following the company’s contribution to Curiosity, the NASA rover that has been exploring the planet since 2012 (SENER supplied the pointing mechanism for the antenna that enables bi-directional communication between the rover and the Earth).

Have a good trip!

More news

08/02/2018 ERC Grants & the Catalan Research System: a Success Story 01/02/2018 The best of the Bioregion of Catalonia in 2017 25/01/2018 Barcelona, a business friendly capital 18/01/2018 When Ideas Generated at the UAB make cows happy 11/01/2018 2017, the Year When Stradivarius settled Down In the Barcelona Synchrotron Park 21/12/2017 Barcelona Supercomputing Center: Beautiful, Powerful And European
12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22