Eighth International Conference on Mars (2014) 1232.pdf

THE ESA-ROSCOSMOS EXOMARS 2016 MISSION: A STATUS REPORT. O. Witasse1, J. L. Vago1, D. S. Rodionov2, and the ExoMars 2016 Principal Investigator Team3, 1European Space Agency, ESTEC, the Netherlands ([email protected]), 2IKI, Moscow, Russia.

3ExoMars 2016 Principal Investigator Team: A. C. Vandaele, J. J. Lopez Moreno, M. Patel, G. Bellucci, O. Kora- blev, F. Montmessin, N. Thomas, G. Cremonese, I. Mitrofanov, F. Esposito, S. Debei, F. Ferri, F. Forget, Ö. Kara- tekin, and S. Lewis.

Introduction: ExoMars is a cooperative pro- The scientific payload operations of the Orbiter gramme between ESA and ROSCOSMOS, with will start in 2017, after an aerobraking phase, and are NASA contributions. ExoMars includes two missions, planned to continue for a minimum of one martian one in 2016 and another in 2018. year. The 2016 mission includes two elements: an orbiter The Entry, Descent, and landing Demonstrator (Trace Gas Orbiter, TGO) devoted to the study of at- Module: The Entry, Descent and Landing Demonstra- mospheric trace gases and subsurface water, with the tor Module (EDM), now called Schiaparelli, is a tech- goal to acquire information on possible on-going bio- nology element whose goal is to perform a controlled logical or hydrothermal rock alteration processes; and landing on the surface of Mars. The preparation for an Entry, Descent, and landing Demonstrator Module this mission enhances Europe’s expertise and enables (EDM) to achieve a successful soft landing on Mars the testing of key technologies, which could be used in and demonstrate technologies for the 2018 mission subsequent missions to the red planet. Schiaparelli landing. TGO will also provide data communication also offers limited, but useful, science capabilities. It services for surface missions landing on Mars, nomi- will deliver a science package that will operate on the nally until end 2022. The mission will be launched in surface of Mars for a few days after landing. The sur- January 2016 using a Proton rocket and arrive to Mars face payload, called DREAMS (Dust Characterisation, in October 2016. Risk Assessment, and Environment Analyser on the The Trace Gas Orbiter: The Trace Gas Orbiter Martian Surface), includes a suite of sensors to meas- accommodates scientific instruments for the detection ure the wind speed and direction, humidity, pressure, of trace gases with an improved accuracy of three or- surface temperature, the transparency of the atmos- ders of magnitude compared to previous measurements phere, and atmospheric electric fields. The investiga- from orbit and ground-based measurements. It will tion AMELIA (Atmospheric Mars Entry and Landing also deliver new data for understanding the temporal Investigation and Analysis) will study the engineering and spatial evolution of trace gases in the martian at- data recorded during the descent to reconstruct the mosphere, and for the localisation of their sources. EDM trajectory and determine atmospheric conditions, Another important objective is to image and character- such as density and wind, from a high altitude to the ise features on the martian surface which may be relat- surface. These measurements are key to improving ed to these emission sources. The images will provide models of the martian atmosphere. geological context information for the other instrument This presentation will describe the present status of observations. An additional objective is to map the the ExoMars 2016 elements, the science objectives, the subsurface hydrogen to a depth of one metre, with a missions’ profile, the instrumentations, and the major resolution ten times better than previous measure- upcoming milestones. ments. To achieve these objectives, the orbiter carries four References: [1] Vago et al. (2013), ESA Bulletin 155. instruments. NOMAD (Nadir and Occultation for MArs Discovery) and ACS (Atmospheric Chemistry Suite) consist of six sensors in the UV and IR wave- length range, and will provide the most extensive spec- tral coverage of martian atmospheric processes so far. CaSSIS (Colour and Stereo Surface Imaging System) is a high-resolution camera (≤ 5 metres per pixel), ca- pable of obtaining colour and stereo images over a wide, 9-km swathe. Finally, FREND (Fine Resolution Epithermal Neutron Detector) is a neutron detector to map the presence of hydrogen in the top martian sub- surface.