The Schiaparelli lander, which was designed to land on the surface of planet Mars, is now headed for its historic landing on the Red Planet.
After traveling for seven months from Earth, the Mars lander has separated from its mothership, the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), at about 10:42 a.m. EDT (14:42 GMT) on Sunday, Oct. 16, to head toward the surface of the Red Planet.
The Trace Gas Orbiter, an orbiting satellite, and the Schiaparelli lander make up the ExoMars 2016 mission, a collaboration of the European Space Agency (ESA) and Russia's Roscosmos.
Using a heat shield, a parachute and thrusters, the lander is set to land on Meridiani Planum region of planet Mars to test technologies for future rover mission that aims to find signs of past and present alien life on the Red Planet. The Schiaparelli module, in particular, is designed to test the entry, descent and landing technology required for Mars landing.
"Today, three days before gravity will ensure the arrival of ExoMars 2016 at Mars, the Schiaparelli Entry, Descent & landing demonstrator Module separated from the TGO orbiter and is now en route on a ballistic trajectory to reach the Red Planet, enter its atmosphere and land softly in an area close to the equator known as Meridiani Planum," ESA said.
ESA officials said that the probe is powered by internal batteries. Since it is not solar powered like other probes sent for space missions, Schiaparelli is expected to operate only for a few days on the Martian surface.
If everything goes well, both probes will arrive at the Red Planet on Oct. 19 with the lander dropping down to the planet's surface as its mothership enters orbit around Mars.
Schiaparelli marks the second European attempt to land a probe on the Martian surface after a futile mission by the Beagle 2, a British landing spacecraft that formed part of ESA's 2003 Mars Express mission. The probe lost contact during its final descent to planet Mars. A successful landing this week would make Schiaparelli the first European lander to land on Mars.
Although NASA already has two rovers operating on the Red Planet, namely Curiosity and Opportunity, landing a probe on Mars is considered a very difficult task. It has been elusive to Russian efforts and posed trouble even for the U.S. space agency.
Interests on the Red Planet have been mounting over recent years. Besides NASA, Rocosmos and ESA, private companies such as SpaceX and Boeing have already expressed their intentions to reach planet Mars.
