ExoMars 2016: Mission to find life on Mars to launch

Impression of orbiter spacecraft heading to the Red Planet Credit: Reuters

The first stage of a major search for life on Mars will be launched today, as a rocket takes off on a seven-month journey to the Red Planet.

A Russian rocket will blast off from Kazakhstan at 0930 GMT today, launching Europe's ExoMars mission.

  • What is ExoMars?

A joint European and Russian two-part mission to search for biochemical "fingerprints" of life on Mars, both on the surface and in its atmosphere. Today is the launch of Exomars 2016, and in 2018 the second part of the mission will be launched.

  • How will ExoMars 2016 search for life on the Red Planet?

An orbiter craft will sniff the atmosphere for traces of gases, including methane, which on Earth is mostly generated by bacteria. A landing module is also being sent to test-run the technology to be used to land the rover on the later ExoMars mission.

  • How will ExoMars 2018 search for life?

A rover built in Stevenage with a 6-foot drill will search for evidence of long-dead or still-living microbes on the surface.

  • What happens if it finds signs of life?

Finding evidence of life on Mars would greatly increase the chances of there being an abundance of life - in the form of primitive organisms or intelligent life - elsewhere in the Universe.

  • Why Mars?

Scientists believe billions of years ago Mars may have had the conditions to support life - a thick atmosphere, and liquid surface water.

Impression of orbiter spacecraft heading to the Red Planet Credit: Reuters

ExoMars 2016 Mission Timeline:

  • 0931 GMT, Monday March 14: Launch of the two ExoMars 2016 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan.

  • October 19: Orbiter craft inserts itself into an orbit around Mars.

  • December 2017: Orbiter craft's science operations begin.