A few weeks ago, TGO reached its final orbit after a year of ‘aerobraking.’ This exciting operation saw the spacecraft skimming through the very top of Mars’ upper atmosphere, using drag on its solar wings to transform its initial highly elliptical 4-day orbit of about 124-61,000 miles (200-98,000 km) into the final, much lower and near-circular path at about 249 miles (400 km).
“This is a major milestone for our ExoMars program. We have reached this orbit for the first time through aerobraking and with the heaviest orbiter ever sent to the Red Planet, ready to start searching for signs of life from orbit,” said TGO mission manager Dr. Pia Mitschdoerfer.
“We will start our science mission in just a couple of weeks and are extremely excited about what the first measurements will reveal,” said TGO project scientist Dr. Håkan Svedhem.
“We have the sensitivity to detect rare gases in minute proportions, with the potential to discover if Mars is still active today — biologically or geologically speaking.”
To read more, click here.