MAPC: "Red Mars" as Russia Partners with Euros
"A Mars lander left its mothership on Sunday after a seven-month journey from Earth and headed toward the red planet's surface to test technologies for Europe's planned first Mars rover, which will search for signs of past and present life.
[Note "seven months" not two years... MEM]
"On the side of (Schiaparelli) I would say that the separation was a success," Paolo Ferri, head of mission operations at ESA, told Reuters TV at ESA's Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany, after it had been confirmed that the lander had split from the TGO.
Schiaparelli, part of the European-Russian ExoMars program, represents only the second European attempt to land a craft on Mars, after a failed mission by Britain's Beagle 2 in 2003.
Landing on Mars, Earth's neighbor some 35 million miles (56 million km) away, is a notoriously difficult task that has bedeviled most Russian efforts and given NASA trouble as well.
Elon Musk's SpaceX is developing a massive rocket and capsule to transport large numbers of people and cargo to Mars with the ultimate goal of colonizing the planet, with Musk saying he would like to launch the first crew as early as 2024."
-- http://www.reuters.com/article/us-eur...
[Note "seven months" not two years... MEM]
"On the side of (Schiaparelli) I would say that the separation was a success," Paolo Ferri, head of mission operations at ESA, told Reuters TV at ESA's Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany, after it had been confirmed that the lander had split from the TGO.
Schiaparelli, part of the European-Russian ExoMars program, represents only the second European attempt to land a craft on Mars, after a failed mission by Britain's Beagle 2 in 2003.
Landing on Mars, Earth's neighbor some 35 million miles (56 million km) away, is a notoriously difficult task that has bedeviled most Russian efforts and given NASA trouble as well.
Elon Musk's SpaceX is developing a massive rocket and capsule to transport large numbers of people and cargo to Mars with the ultimate goal of colonizing the planet, with Musk saying he would like to launch the first crew as early as 2024."
-- http://www.reuters.com/article/us-eur...
