ExoMars mission: ‘13 years of British research strapped to massive bomb’
The British-backed ExoMars mission will launch on Monday March 14 with the hope of finding life on Mars
By
Sarah Knapton, Science Editor
11:54AM GMT 11 Mar 2016
British scientists are facing a nail-biting wait ahead of next week's
ExoMars mission launch, warning that 13 years of research is now ‘strapped to a great big bomb.’
The huge proton rocket, which will take the spacecraft to the Red Planet, was rolled out on Friday morning ahead of its launch from Baikonor, Kazakhstan, on Monday.
The mission is
hunting for life on Mars and will be looking specifically for evidence of the methane, a gas primarily produced by living organisms.
After a seven month journey, the
ExoMars orbiter will release a probe to the surface and remain in orbit
hunting for signs of life.
It is the first time that Britain has ventured to the planet since the ill-fated Beagle 2 mission in 2003.
The probe and orbiter are carrying an array of British instruments, tuned to hunt for elusive methane emissions which could signal the presence of life-forms. It will be followed in two-years-time by a rover which is currently being built by Airbus in Hertfordshire.
Dr Manish Patel, from the Open University, has helped develop the ozone-mapping ultraviolet (UV) spectrometer instrument on the orbiter, said: "This is a fantastic mission; massive.
"I spent the last 13 years of my life working on it so I am somewhat excited and nervous. You're strapping an instrument you've devoted your life to on top of a great big bomb.
"It's scary but it's why I'm in this business. There won't be many nails left on launch day."
Mars is thought to be our
best chance of finding evidence of extra-terrestrial life because it once had running water and an atmosphere. The hope of discovering life was raised in December 2014 when
intriguing ‘burps’ of methane were recorded by Nasa’s Curiosity Rover.
On Earth, around 90 per cent of methane is produced by organisms, so the expectation is that some kind of life is also emitting the gas on Mars.
Microbial life has been found to live more than one mile beneath the surface of the Witwatersrand basin in South Africa so scientists are sure microbes could survive
below the permafrost layer on Mars.
Crucially methane vanishes on Mars after a few hundred years so it must have been produced in the recent past.
etc...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/sci...ritish-research-strapped-to-massive-bomb.html
Video and photos, etc on page.