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EXOMARS 2022 MISSION

EXOMARS 2022 MISSION

Why in News?

The European Space Agency’s ExoMars 2022 mission won’t launch in September, 2022 as planned after the agency suspended all cooperation with Russia’s space program Roscosmos.

About

Its first mission launched atop a Proton-M rocket in 2016 and consisted of the European Trace Gas Orbiter and test lander called Schiaparelli. The orbiter was successful while the test lander failed during its descent to Mars.

The second part comprises of a rover and surface platform and mission was originally planned for July 2020. But it was postponed until this September due to technical issues.

ESA and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) were the original ExoMars collaborators, but NASA dropped out in 2012 due to budgeting problems.Russia took NASA’s place in the project in 2013.

Objectives

• The primary aim of the mission is to check if there has ever been life on Mars and also understand the history of water on the planet.
• The European rover will drill to the sub-surface of Mars to collect samples from about 2 m of depth.
• The main goal is to land ESA's rover at a site which has high-potential for finding well-preserved organic material, particularly from the history of the planet.

Mars

• It is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System. Mars is about half the size of Earth.
• As Mars orbits the Sun, it completes one rotation every 24.6 hours, which is very similar to one day on Earth (23.9 hours).
• Mars has distinct seasons like Earth, but they last longer than seasons on Earth.
• Martian days are called sols—short for ‘solar day’.
• The reason Mars looks reddish is due to oxidation or rusting of iron in the rocks, and dust of Mars. Hence it is also called the Red Planet.
• It has the largest volcano in the solar system (Olympus Mons).
• It has two small moons, Phobos and Deimos.