For more than a year, a 3.5-tonne spacecraft has been circling Mars in a series of erratic loops. Now, after 1,000 circuits, the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) has reached the ideal position to study the planet’s atmosphere, and has made its first scientific observations. It is poised to solve one of the most controversial mysteries in Martian science: why methane, a possible signature of life, is being released on the red planet.
The TGO is part of the ExoMars mission, a joint venture between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Russian space agency Roscosmos. The orbiter, which launched in March 2016 and reached the planet that October, is the first craft specifically designed to study gases that make up less than 1% of the planet’s cold, arid atmosphere, including methane, water vapour and ozone. The TGO reached its planned circular orbit earlier this month, and underwent a series of engineering tests before starting to take scientific data on 21 April.
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