European spacecraft begins search for life on mars – Agder

Romfartøyets 500 million km long journey to Mars has taken seven months, but it all depends on how the landing goes.

With a speed of 21,000 kilometers per hour to the spacecraft’s landingsmodul begin its six minutes long journey from the Mars atmosphere to the planet’s surface around the clock 16.42 bst.

Parachutes and rocket boosters to help the 577 kilos, the module for the last stage on the way towards the surface of the earth naboplanet, while the rest of the spacecraft will go in orbit around the planet as a satellite.

If the landing is successful, the next phase in the european-Russian ExoMars expedition starting in 2020.

This assumes that Schiaparelli did not supply a so-called “heroic failure”, as the british spacecraft Beagle 2 did in 2003. The time lost to all contact with the vessel when it landed. (©NTB)