Is there life on Mars?(9)
2023-05-30 来源:百合文库
Every contact leaves a trace
Meanwhile, ESA had kept its part of the ExoMars programme alive, turning to Russia for help with launching and hardware. In 2016, the Europeans delivered the first part of the programme, the Trace Gas Orbiter, to its destination. Its goal is to measure the precise concentrations in Mars’s atmosphere of substances, including methane, water vapour, nitrogen oxides and acetylene, that each form less than 1% of the atmosphere’s total volume but which might be signs of biological activity.
Methane is of particular interest since its presence varies with both time and location on the planet’s surface. Methane does not live long in the Martian atmosphere, suggesting there is an active source of the gas. On Earth, living things emit methane as they digest nutrients. But purely geological processes can also liberate the stuff.
The next step in ESA’s ExoMars programme is a rover, called Rosalind Franklin. This was also scheduled for launch about now, to take advantage, like the Perseverance and Al Amal missions, of the current alignment of Earth and Mars that allows for a quick, six-month journey between the two. However, a combination of technical delays and the effect of covid-19, which has meant the multinational team of engineers involved could not easily travel to complete the manufacture and testing of the rover, has pushed the launch date back to the next favourable alignment, in 2022.
Meanwhile, ESA had kept its part of the ExoMars programme alive, turning to Russia for help with launching and hardware. In 2016, the Europeans delivered the first part of the programme, the Trace Gas Orbiter, to its destination. Its goal is to measure the precise concentrations in Mars’s atmosphere of substances, including methane, water vapour, nitrogen oxides and acetylene, that each form less than 1% of the atmosphere’s total volume but which might be signs of biological activity.
Methane is of particular interest since its presence varies with both time and location on the planet’s surface. Methane does not live long in the Martian atmosphere, suggesting there is an active source of the gas. On Earth, living things emit methane as they digest nutrients. But purely geological processes can also liberate the stuff.
The next step in ESA’s ExoMars programme is a rover, called Rosalind Franklin. This was also scheduled for launch about now, to take advantage, like the Perseverance and Al Amal missions, of the current alignment of Earth and Mars that allows for a quick, six-month journey between the two. However, a combination of technical delays and the effect of covid-19, which has meant the multinational team of engineers involved could not easily travel to complete the manufacture and testing of the rover, has pushed the launch date back to the next favourable alignment, in 2022.
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