Portugal is traveling to Mars, on Monday, the day it launched the first of two European missions to look for signs of life on the planet, carrying technology Portuguese companies.
launch is scheduled for 9:31 of Lisbon, from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, and is part of the robotic exploration program of Mars, the ExoMars, a collaboration between European space agencies (ESA) and Russia (Roscosmos ).
Inside a Russian rocket Proton-M following a satellite and an input module, descent and landing on Mars. Both have components’ made in Portugal.
The flight plan provides that the satellite, TGO, to separate from the rocket after ten and a half hours, and open the solar panels that you will give energy to continue the journey and stay, then the orbit of Mars.
according to the ESA, only to October 16, after entering the planet’s orbit is the satellite separates from the module the ‘Schiaparelli’, which will enter the Martian atmosphere and land on the surface after three days.
the ExoMars includes a second mission, which provides for sending to Mars, in 2018, a robotic vehicle, the first European on the planet, who will walk on the surface to collect and analyze samples from underground that may contain biological markers of past life, or even present.
as the first mission, ExoMars 1, the second mission, ExoMars 2, brings together technological contributions of Portuguese companies, or Portuguese experts working in foreign companies. Companies are integrated in an international consortium led by Thales Alenia Space Italia, which adds more than 20 countries companies.
For the second time, ESA, of which Portugal is a member-countries will put a device in the orbit of Mars to study the planet, having sent in 2003, the Mars Express probe, which confirmed in 2007, the existence of water near the South Pole.
With ‘ life expectancy “of five years, the Trace gas Orbiter (TGO) will seek rarefied gases in the atmosphere of Mars, in particular methane, an indicator that there may be, or have been, life on the ‘red planet’.
It was up to the company Critical Software, based in Coimbra, ensure the proper functioning of the satellite and HPS Portugal, Porto, protect, thermal point of view, its instruments.
Already Active Spaces Technologies also Coimbra, was in charge of the thermal studies which formed the basis of the evaluation and selection of the module landing sites ‘Schiaparelli’.
the module, which will serve to Europe to test technology entry, descent and landing on Mars, safe, thinking of future human missions on the planet, will land in a small flat region near the equator, the Meridiani Planum, which, believe scientists, may have evidence that there was water, essential to life on the Martian surface in the distant past.
The equipment, which has a conical shape and weighs 600 kilograms, is called ‘Schiaparelli’, named after the Italian astronomer Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli (1835- 1910), which created a map of Mars with ‘sea’ and ‘continents’, from telescopic observations.
the HPS Portugal also ensured the thermal insulation in multi-layer module. Without this coating, the components would not survive the journey from Earth and not work on the surface of Mars, planet with very high temperature ranges.
‘Schiaparelli’, who will enter the atmosphere of Mars and down to the surface of the planet to a 21 000 kilometers per hour, it will only be operational for a few days but in six minutes to take his descent, will be able to collect additional data, in particular the atmosphere rich in carbon dioxide, that will be sent to Earth satellite.
the total cost of ExoMars program was initially estimated by ESA, at EUR 1.2 billion. In January, the director general of the European Space Agency, Jan Wörner admitted, however, may need more money, calling for a financial effort of member countries with a strong presence in two missions: Italy, France, UK and Germany.
Lusa text.
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