On March 14, 2016, the European Space Agency's ExoMars spacecraft launched on a mission to search for life on Mars.
The mission consisted of an orbiter called the Trace Gas Orbiter and a lander called Schiaparelli. The Trace Gas Orbiter would study the atmosphere of Mars while relaying communications between the lander and Earth. The two spacecraft blasted off together on a Russian Proton rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. They spent the next seven months cruising to Mars. When they arrived, Schiaparelli separated from the orbiter and began its descent. But something went wrong when it came in for a controlled landing. Mission control lost contact with the lander and later found out that it had crashed due to a computer glitch. Despite this setback, the ExoMars mission will live on. The orbiter is still working just fine, and an ExoMars rover is scheduled to join the Trace Gas Orbiter on Mars in 2020.
The mission consisted of an orbiter called the Trace Gas Orbiter and a lander called Schiaparelli. The Trace Gas Orbiter would study the atmosphere of Mars while relaying communications between the lander and Earth. The two spacecraft blasted off together on a Russian Proton rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. They spent the next seven months cruising to Mars. When they arrived, Schiaparelli separated from the orbiter and began its descent. But something went wrong when it came in for a controlled landing. Mission control lost contact with the lander and later found out that it had crashed due to a computer glitch. Despite this setback, the ExoMars mission will live on. The orbiter is still working just fine, and an ExoMars rover is scheduled to join the Trace Gas Orbiter on Mars in 2020.
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TechTranscript
00:00On this day in space.
00:04On March 14th, 2016, the European Space Agency's ExoMars spacecraft
00:08launched on a mission to search for life on Mars. The mission consisted of an
00:12orbiter called the Trace Gas Orbiter and a lander called Sheparilli.
00:16The Trace Gas Orbiter would study the atmosphere of Mars while relaying communications between the lander
00:20and Earth. The two spacecraft blasted off together on a Russian Proton
00:24rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. They spent the next seven
00:28months cruising to Mars. When they arrived, Sheparilli separated from the
00:32orbiter and began its descent. But something went wrong when it came in for a controlled landing.
00:36Mission control lost contact with the lander and later found out that it had
00:40crashed due to a computer glitch. Despite this setback, the ExoMars
00:44mission will live on. The orbiter is still working just fine and an ExoMars
00:48rover is scheduled to join the Trace Gas Orbiter on Mars in 2020.
00:52And that's what happened on this day in space.
00:56Music
01:00Music