Mars methane mission lifts off

[nitpicker]

Source: BBC

Mars methane mission lifts off

By Jonathan Amos
BBC Science Correspondent, Darmstadt


55 minutes ago

Europe and Russia have launched a joint mission to the Red Planet. The satellite, called the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), lifted off from Baikonur in Kazakhstan at 09:31 GMT. The probe will investigate whether the methane in the world's atmosphere is coming from a geological source or is being produced by microbes.

If all goes well, the two space powers expect to follow up this venture with a rover, to be assembled in the UK, which will drill into the surface. That could launch in 2018, or, as seems increasingly likely, in 2020.

It will take the carrier rocket more than 10 hours to put the satellite on the right trajectory to go to Mars. This involves a series of engine burns by the Proton's Breeze upper-stage to build up the velocity needed to break free of Earth's gravity. These will fling the TGO away from Earth with a relative velocity of 33,000km/h.
(snip)

Assuming everything works out this time, controllers at the European Space Agency's operations centre in Darmstadt, Germany, can expect a signal from the TGO after it has been released on its way by the Breeze boost stage. This should come through at 21:28 GMT. It is then a seven-month cruise to Mars.
(snip)

Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-35799792

[Fairgo]

1. Great, we're Fracking Marvin...

and me without a Q36 space modulator.

[Canadian Interloper]

2. We're a Lonely Species

I'm sure there are microbes on (or in) a planet or moon in this solar system other than Earth. Who cares? We ought to devote our resources to finding complex, well-evolved life.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. This is a fundamental scientific question

That you personally are 'sure' makes no difference to the rest of us. No-one else has sufficient evidence for life elsewhere.

[Canadian Interloper]

5. But, if we're Looking for Life,,,

shouldn't it be more than a germ? And I don't know for sure if there are microbes on Mars, but isn't it sad we're so desperate to find them?

[muriel_volestrangler]

6. No, it's not 'sad' at all

Getting an idea of how, where and when life arises is one of the most basic scientific questions to answer. We can't look for advanced life in the solar system - all we could do with that is communicate with other systems, via radio, with delays of many years. This is something we can do in detail, with definite ways to find out and examine it, while SETI is much more speculative.

[Herman4747]

3. Have we become this desperate for methane? n/t

[chapdrum]

7. Is it "Exo" as in Exxon?

Might they find that methane emanating from Mars (if it is, and we take their word) is to blame for the methane found in Earth's atmosphere and then blame that, INSTEAD of humans burning carbon?

P.S. Interesting what governments find money for.