The European Space Agency and the Russian agency Roscosmos launched the ExoMars mission on March 14 to the neighboring red planet in order to study the atmosphere and the subsoil, with the intention of looking for traces of gases with possible biological importance. The trip will last seven months and the ship will travel 141 million kilometers.
Was there life on Mars in the past?
This is undoubtedly the most relevant unknown facing ExoMars. For this, it is equipped with all kinds of new technologies such as the NOMAD instrument, designed in part by the Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (Spain), to analyze Martian methane, a gas that, on Earth, is produced mainly by living beings. and that, after the discovery in 2004 of unexpected quantities of methane on Mars, it opened a new path of study.
What exactly is the ExoMars project?
It is made up of two well-differentiated missions : the first, which was launched on March 14 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, consisting of a satellite that will study the gases, and a proven entry, descent and landing module called Schiaparelli; The second mission, scheduled for 2018 , will consist of sending an exploration vehicle to complete the study of possible active biological or geological processes on Mars.
“ Methane was not anticipated on Mars and the best physical models we work with do not explain it. This divergence between the models and the data requires, on the one hand, new observations and, on the other, a new theoretical framework ”, explains Miguel Ángel López Valverde, from the IAA.
Creation of the first global map of Martian methane
NOMAD is a high-resolution spectrograph with an excellent ability to measure minority compounds that will use the technique of solar occultation to deduce the components that make up the atmosphere. This instrument will thus generate the first global and detailed map of methane in the atmosphere of Mars and will track it, in order to find the source of production or disappearance of the gas and whether it has a geological or biological origin.
The ExoMars samples will be collected on a future mission in 2020 .
The role of Spain in ExoMars
Spanish participation in the ExoMars project is more than remarkable in missions that start with a total budget of 1,300 million euros (6.7% stay in Spain). First, for having scientists from the Andalusian Institute of Astrophysics involved in the creation of the NOMAD instrument, but also with an important range of Spanish companies that have collaborated on several key technical aspects , related to both the ship itself and the communications systems. , including Airbus Defense and Space, CRISA, GMV, RYMSA Espacio, SENER, Thales Alenia Space España or Elecnor Deimos.
