NASA Sound Rockets leave Tracer Clouds

This photo provided by NASA shows chemical tracers that were released from five rockets launched from NASA's Wallops Island test flight facility in Atlantic, Virginia, US.

The tracers form white clouds that allow scientists and the public to visualise upper level jet stream winds.

Picture: NASA/AP

ESA: Tooling up ExoMars mission

ESA - Space Science - Tooling up ExoMars

Tooling up ExoMars
ESA and NASA are inviting scientists from across the world to propose instruments for their joint Mars mission, the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter.

Scheduled for launch in 2016, the spacecraft will focus on understanding the rarest constituents of the martian atmosphere, including the mysterious methane that could signal life on Mars.

Establishing whether life ever existed, or is still active on Mars today, is one of the outstanding scientific quests of our time. Both missions in the ExoMars programme will address this important goal.

The first spacecraft is the Trace Gas Orbiter, which ESA will build and NASA will launch.

Today, both space agencies issued an Announcement of Opportunity inviting scientists to propose instruments to be carried on the mission. Once all proposals are in, they will be evaluated and the winning teams will be tasked with building the actual hardware.

A Joint Instrument Definition Team has identified a model payload based on current technology, but turning that blueprint into reality is now the job of the scientific community. “We are open to all instrumental proposals so long as they help us achieve our scientific objectives,” says Jorge Vago, ESA ExoMars Project Scientist.