FRANKFURT (Reuters) - A Mars lander left its mothership on Sunday after a seven-month journey from Earth and headed toward the red planet’s surface to test technologies for Europe’s planned first Mars rover, which will search for signs of past and present life.

The disc-shaped 577-kilogramme (1,272 lb) Schiaparelli lander separated from the spacecraft Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) at 1442 GMT (10:42 a.m. EDT) as expected, starting a three-day descent to the surface.

Signals received from TGO, which is to orbit Mars and sniff out gases around the planet, did not at first contain data on the lander’s onboard status, but the European Space Agency (ESA) later said the link with the craft had been restored.

“On the side of (Schiaparelli) I would say that the separation was a success,” Paolo Ferri, head of mission operations at ESA, told Reuters TV at ESA’s Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany, after it had been confirmed that the lander had split from the TGO.

Schiaparelli, part of the European-Russian ExoMars program, represents only the second European attempt to land a craft on Mars, after a failed mission by Britain’s Beagle 2 in 2003.

Landing on Mars, Earth’s neighbor some 35 million miles (56 million km) away, is a notoriously difficult task that has bedevilled most Russian efforts and given NASA trouble as well.

But a seemingly hostile environment has not detracted from the allure of Mars, with U.S. President Barack Obama recently highlighting his pledge to send people to the planet by the 2030s.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is developing a massive rocket and capsule to transport large numbers of people and cargo to Mars with the ultimate goal of colonizing the planet, with Musk saying he would like to launch the first crew as early as 2024.

The primary goal of ExoMars is to find out whether life has ever existed on Mars. The current spacecraft, TGO, carries an atmospheric probe to study trace gases such as methane around the planet.

Scientists believe that methane, a chemical that on Earth is strongly tied to life, could stem from micro-organisms that either became extinct millions of years ago and left gas frozen below the planet’s surface, or that some methane-producing organisms still survive.

Schiaparelli will reach the atmosphere of Mars on Wednesday, and will use a parachute and thrusters to slow its descent from a speed of nearly 21,000 kilometers per hour before touching down on the planet’s surface. Entry, descent and landing will take less than six minutes.

The second part of the ExoMars mission, delayed to 2020 from 2018, will deliver a European rover to the surface of Mars. It will be the first with the ability to both move across the planet’s surface and drill into the ground to collect and analyze samples.

Slideshow (4 Images)

The ExoMars 2016 mission is led by the European Space Agency (ESA), with Russia’s Roscosmos supplying the launcher and two of the four scientific instruments on the trace gas orbiter. The prime contractor is Thales Alenia Space, a joint venture between Thales and Finmeccanica.

The cost of the ExoMars mission to ESA, including the second part due in 2020, is expected to be about 1.3 billion euros ($1.4 billion). Russia’s contribution comes on top of that.

($1 = 0.9060 euros)</s>After a seven-month journey from Earth as part of the European-Russian ExoMars program, the Schiaparelli lander is expected to separate from spacecraft Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) at 1442 GMT (10:42 a.m. EDT) and start a three-day descent to the surface.

Schiaparelli represents only the second European attempt to land a craft on Mars, after a failed mission by the British landing craft Beagle 2 in 2003.

Landing on Mars, Earth's neighbor some 35 million miles (56 million km) away, is a notoriously difficult task that has bedevilled most Russian efforts and given NASA trouble as well. The United States currently has two operational rovers on Mars, Curiosity and Opportunity.

But a seemingly hostile environment has not detracted from the allure of Mars, with U.S. President Barack Obama recently highlighting his pledge to send people to the planet by the 2030s.

Elon Musk's SpaceX is developing a massive rocket and capsule to transport large numbers of people and cargo to Mars with the ultimate goal of colonizing the planet, with Musk saying he would like to launch the first crew as early as 2024.

The primary goal of ExoMars is to find out whether life has ever existed on Mars. The current spacecraft carries an atmospheric probe to study trace gases such as methane, around the planet.

Scientists believe that methane, a chemical that on Earth is strongly tied to life, could stem from micro-organisms that either became extinct millions of years ago and left gas frozen below the planet's surface, or that some methane-producing organisms still survive.

The second part of the ExoMars mission, delayed to 2020 from 2018, will deliver a European rover to the surface of Mars. It will be the first with the ability to both move across the planet's surface and drill into the ground to collect and analyze samples.

The ExoMars 2016 mission is led by the European Space Agency (ESA), with Russia's Roscosmos supplying the launcher and two of the four scientific instruments on the trace gas orbiter. The prime contractor is Thales Alenia Space, a joint venture between Thales and Finmeccanica.

The cost of the ExoMars mission to ESA, including the second part due in 2020, is expected to be about 1.3 billion euros ($1.4 billion). Russia's contribution comes on top of that.

In 2018, NASA also plans to launch a Mars spacecraft, a satellite known as InSight and designed to study the deep interior of Mars.</s>The disc-shaped 577-kilogramme (1,272 lb) Schiaparelli lander separated from spacecraft Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) at 1442 GMT (1042 EST) as expected, starting a three-day descent to the surface.

But in a setback, signals received from TGO, which is to orbit Mars and sniff out gases around the planet, did not contain data on the lander's onboard status, raising .

"We have to receive and process this telemetry (data) first and after that we can say what has happened. But on the side of (Schiaparelli) I would say that the separation was a success," Paolo Ferri, head of mission operations at ESA, told Reuters TV at ESA's Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany.

Schiaparelli, part of the European-Russian ExoMars program, represents only the second European attempt to land a craft on Mars, after a failed mission by Britain's Beagle 2 in 2003.

Landing on Mars, Earth's neighbor some 35 million miles (56 million km) away, is a notoriously difficult task that has bedeviled most Russian efforts and given NASA trouble as well. The United States currently has two operational rovers on Mars, Curiosity and Opportunity.

But a seemingly hostile environment has not detracted from the allure of Mars, with U.S. President Barack Obama recently highlighting his pledge to send people to the planet by the 2030s.

Elon Musk's SpaceX is developing a massive rocket and capsule to transport large numbers of people and cargo to Mars with the ultimate goal of colonizing the planet, with Musk saying he would like to launch the first crew as early as 2024.

The primary goal of ExoMars is to find out whether life has ever existed on Mars. The current spacecraft, TGO, carries an atmospheric probe to study trace gases such as methane around the planet.

Scientists believe that methane, a chemical that on Earth is strongly tied to life, could stem from micro-organisms that either became extinct millions of years ago and left gas frozen below the planet's surface, or that some methane-producing organisms still survive.

The second part of the ExoMars mission, delayed to 2020 from 2018, will deliver a European rover to the surface of Mars. It will be the first with the ability to both move across the planet's surface and drill into the ground to collect and analyze samples.

The ExoMars 2016 mission is led by the European Space Agency (ESA), with Russia's Roscosmos supplying the launcher and two of the four scientific instruments on the trace gas orbiter. The prime contractor is Thales Alenia Space, a joint venture between Thales and Finmeccanica.

The cost of the ExoMars mission to ESA, including the second part due in 2020, is expected to be about 1.3 billion euros ($1.4 billion). Russia's contribution comes on top of that.</s>BERLIN – The European Space Agency dispatched an experimental probe Sunday on the final leg of its quest to land on Mars, part of a mission aimed at exploring the red planet’s atmosphere and searching for signs of life.

The Schiaparelli lander separated from its mother ship as scheduled, flight director Michel Denis announced to applause at control center in Darmstadt, Germany. That set it on the way to a controlled descent to the surface on Wednesday.

Schiaparelli will take images of Mars and conduct scientific measurements on the surface, but its main purpose is to test technology for a future European Mars rover.

Schiaparelli’s mother ship, the Trace Gas Orbiter, will remain in orbit – analyzing methane and other gases in the Martian atmosphere to help determine whether there is or was life on Mars. Methane is created by biological or geological activity and breaks down within a relatively short period of time once it reaches the atmosphere.

The two craft are part of the ExoMars mission , a joint venture between ESA and Russia’s Roscosmos space agency, and were launched in March.

Landing a spacecraft on Mars is notoriously difficult. ESA’s last attempted Mars landing with the Beagle 2 rover failed at the end of 2003.

Beagle 2 disappeared during the landing process and was declared lost after several months. It wasn’t located until January 2015, when new photos from an orbiter showed that it had reached the surface but failed to deploy fully.</s>BERLIN (AP) — The European Space Agency is dispatching an experimental probe on the final leg of its mission to land on Mars.

The Schiaparelli space lander is to separate from its mother ship at 1442 GMT (10:42 EDT) Sunday in preparation for a controlled descent to the red planet Wednesday.

The probe will take images of Mars and conduct scientific measurements on the surface, but its main purpose is to test technology for a future European Mars rover.

ESA’s last attempted Mars landing with the Beagle 2 rover failed in 2003.

Schiaparelli’s mother ship will remain in orbit to analyze gases in the Martian atmosphere to help answer whether there is or was life on Mars.

The ExoMars mission is a joint venture between ESA and Russia’s Roscosmos space agency.</s>A European spacecraft has detached from its mothership to begin an attempt to make a tricky landing on Mars.

Schiaparelli is the first European Space Agency (ESA) probe in nearly 15 years to try to make contact with the red planet.

The lander is designed to monitor aspects of Martian weather rather than search for signs of life. It will also test out a landing system to be used for a future rover mission that will look for evidence of past or present living organisms.

It is hoped Schiaparelli will fare better than its predecessor, Beagle 2, which vanished on Christmas Day in 2003 after separating from the Mars Express orbiter. The lander is expected to touch down on Wednesday after a three-day descent.

Schiaparelli was launched on 14 March in the first stage of an ambitious joint European and Russian mission to search for the first clear evidence of life on Mars. It has crossed 310 million miles of space in seven months.

Stephen Lewis of the Open University, who co-heads the team that will receive data from the probe’s engineering sensors during the descent, said: “Landing on Mars has always been a perilous endeavour, not least because Mars has an active atmosphere and weather.

“Understanding the atmosphere on Mars now, and how Mars’ climate has changed, is a key part of finding out whether the planet ever had a habitable environment and supports our understanding of our own climate.”

In 2020 a six-wheeled mobile laboratory, ExoMars Rover, will be sent to the planet to drill for samples beneath the surface and analyse them for signatures of life. A key function of Schiaparelli is to try out the rover’s parachute and retro-rocket landing system.</s>PARIS: A European lander is to separate from its mothership yesterday for a million-kilometre

descent to Mars, testing vital technology ahead of a mission to explore the Red Planet for signs of life.

The high-stakes operation comes nearly 13 years after European ambitions were dealt a blow when its first scout to Mars disappeared on landing.

A 600-kilogramme paddling pool-sized lander called Schiaparelli is to separate from an unmanned craft called the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) after a seven-month, 496-million-kilometre trek from Earth.

Separation is scheduled for 1442 GMT, with the landing due to take place on Wednesday, according to the ESA website.

The operation is a testbed for the second chapter of the so-called ExoMars mission, a joint exploration with Russia.

The second part will begin in 2020 with the launch of a rover designed to move around and drill into Mars in search of extra-terrestrial life — past or present.

The separation manoeuvres will be followed closely by mission controllers in Darmstadt, Germany, 175 million kilometres away.

Mars has been a graveyard of space dreams.

Sending an unmanned mobile explorer is especially tricky.

Rovers have to arrive intact after a long trip across space, followed by a descent through Mars’ thin, carbon dioxide atmosphere.

The descent itself is an acrobatic feat, requiring protection from atmospheric friction, extreme braking just above the surface and then a soft touchdown in terrain where any jagged rocks and craters could spell doom.

So far, only the United States has successfully operated rovers on the planet.

In 2003, ESA sent down a small lander, Beagle 2, from its highly successful Mars Express orbiter.

But the cone-shaped craft, packed with tiny instruments but built on a limited budget, disappeared without trace.

Its fate remained unknown until 2015, when composite images by the US Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter suggested Beagle 2 had landed intact but its solar panels had failed to open fully.

After releasing its precious charge on Sunday, the TGO will change course to avoid crashing into Mars. — AFP
The European Space Agency-Roscosmos operated Schiaparelli EDM lander successfully separates from the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter spacecraft, beginning a three-day descent to the surface of Mars.