ESA ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter hand over

ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter over Mars. 

TGO will be launched in 2016 with Schiaparelli, the entry, descent and landing demonstrator module. 

It will search for evidence of methane and other atmospheric gases that could be signatures of active biological or geological processes on Mars. 

TGO will also serve as a communications relay for the rover and surface science platform that will be launched in 2018. 

Image courtesy ESA-D. Ducros.

The ESA ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter module consisting of the spacecraft structure, thermal control and propulsion systems was handed over by OHB System to Thales Alenia Space France at a ceremony held in Bremen, Germany.

The delivery marks an important step in the ExoMars programme, a joint endeavour between ESA and Russia's Roscosmos space agency.

Comprising two missions that will be launched to Mars in 2016 and 2018, respectively, ExoMars will address the outstanding scientific question of whether life has ever existed on Mars by drilling the surface of the planet and analysing in situ the samples.

The ExoMars programme will also demonstrate key technologies for entry, descent, landing, drilling and roving on the martian surface.

The Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), will be launched in 2016 along with Schiaparelli - the entry, descent and landing module.

TGO will search for evidence of methane and other atmospheric gases that could be signatures of active biological or geological processes on Mars.

It will also serve as a communications relay for the 2018 rover and surface science platform.

Today's handover at OHB headquarters marks the end of an intense construction and test period readying this core module to be used as the basis for integration of other TGO subsystems and units, including the science instruments.

The ceremony was attended by ESA's Director General, Jean-Jacques Dordain, who met representatives of the ExoMars industrial consortium to celebrate this important milestone.

"ExoMars is a challenging project, a premiere for Europe, and, in some aspects, a premier in the world," noted Dordain.

"Thanks to the expertise of our industrial partners here in Germany we are on track to deliver this crucial element of the 2016 mission."

"We are already looking forward to the significant scientific discoveries that TGO will make on our quest to understand the evolution of planet Mars, a sister planet of Earth, and in particular, if life has ever existed on Mars."