Since ancient times, man has tried to see the unknown, understand the meaning of life and understand the secrets of the Universe. But even now, in the era of technological breakthrough, we cannot say that our possibilities are limitless. For example, to study a planet, it is necessary to attract fabulous sums, not to mention the duration of the flight to the treasured celestial body.
But astronauts do not miss the chance to get acquainted with other planets of our solar system, and also to come up with ways for space travel beyond the Galaxy. So the space program ExoMars 2017 aimed at studying the mysterious planet Mars. Let's get acquainted with the main provisions of this program, and also learn about its main stages in this article.
Why was Exomars invented?
In 2013, the Russian state corporation Roscosmos, together with the European Space Agency, launched a large-scale program to study the planet Mars called ExoMars. Note that each of the founding parties has its own specific tasks:
- the European one is taking care of creating a flight module and a rover;
- The Russian company is engaged in calculations, design and creation of a landing platform.
Delving into the features of this program, you can see that it consists of the most important stages, the first of which already started last year - a spacecraft was launched from the Boykonur Cosmodrome in order for it to study in detail all the features of the planet Mars.
Main objectives of the program
Without much difficulty you can guess that the most important goal of this program will be to confirm or refute life on Mars. This question has been worrying the inhabitants of our planet for decades, and the creators of Exomars hope that they will soon be able to answer these and many other questions.
But besides this research, scientists intend to tell the world other secrets of the planet:
- Study of the surface and subsurface soil near the ship landing;
- Carrying out all kinds of geological samples of the earth;
- Determination of all physical, chemical and other characteristics of the planet’s surface;
- An accurate description and analysis of how adapted the Martian environment is to further spacecraft landings. Simply put, studying the real danger to scientists and ships;
- Studying the interior of the planet to confirm or refute life on it.
Only after scientists receive answers to all these questions will it be possible to say with confidence that the ExoMars program has been successfully completed.
Latest news
As has already become clear, the ExoMars program is incredibly valuable and significant for all of humanity. At the moment, the scientists who are working on this project are going to provide the inhabitants of the Earth with a number of stunning facts regarding the planet Mars. All these discoveries were made thanks to innovative technologies and techniques developed in the ExoMars laboratories.
Researchers will try to find not only living creatures on Mars, but also methane deposits. Why did they decide to focus on methane?
- Methane is the simplest hydrocarbon produced on our planet by living beings and plants.
- There is a lot of methane on this planet, and this may indicate the presence of life, active volcanoes or active processes in the bowels of the planet.
Let us note that for scientists it does not matter at all which factor will be discovered first - this news will still be a real sensation!
Station for receiving information in 2017
Already next year, work will begin with a Russian ground station to receive information as part of the ExoMars program. The ground radio system will begin collecting data in September 2017 and will include two ground stations for receiving information with 64-meter antennas located in Bear Lakes (TNA-1500) and in Kalyazin (TNA-1500K).
This ground station will be able to pick up signals from other spacecraft of the European Space Agency and NASA from outer space. At present, a prototype of the ground station has already been erected and its testing will begin from the moment the Trace Gas Orbiter begins braking on the atmosphere of Mars.
The Future of Exomars
Many who are closely following the progress of this program are worried that it will not last as long as planned. But scientists assure that ExoMars will exist for a long time, because research work has just begun and specialists are faced with a huge amount of problems that need to be solved. For example, this year the team will have to find methane deposits and display them on a map of the surface of Mars.
Already in 2018, work will continue on a detailed study of the obtained analyzes that were discovered in certain places. In addition, a functional Mars rover has already been sent to the planet, which is capable of revealing all the secrets of this mysterious planet.
Mars rover and its features
Most of us may ask a completely logical question: “What is the difference between the current version of the rover and the previous ones, as well as from those used earlier?” The ExoMars designers happily shared its main advantages, namely:
- installed powerful panoramic and solar panels;
- offline navigation;
- the ability to connect black and white maps to the main computer, thereby giving scientists a clearer and more detailed image of the area.
Summarizing all of the above, it becomes clear that ExoMars is a great opportunity to get a few steps closer to unraveling the mysteries of the Universe, as well as good experience in using innovative technologies.
Video news
Mars has always aroused curiosity among scientists and ordinary people, so many studies and discoveries are associated with it. The scientists' report that there was water on Mars became a real sensation. Currently, two rovers and three orbiters are exploring Mars, and two more will soon join them. Our review contains the most interesting ideas that arise during these scientific researches.
10. The passage of a comet disrupted the magnetosphere of Mars
In September 2014, the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft entered Mars orbit. Just a few weeks later, the probe witnessed a rare occurrence of a comet passing very close to the Red Planet. Comet C/2013 A1, also known as "Siding Spring", was discovered in 2013.
Scientists initially thought the comet would crash into Mars, but the two objects passed within 140,000 km of each other. Since Mars has a rather weak magnetosphere, the planet was literally flooded with a layer of ions from the comet's powerful magnetic field. NASA compared this effect to a powerful but short-lived solar storm. As a result, for some time the magnetic field of Mars plunged into complete chaos.
In 2013, the MAVEN spacecraft was launched to study the atmosphere of Mars. Based on observations made by the probe and computer modeling, it appears that the planet has a rather fashionable mohawk. Mars' unusual hairstyle is actually made up of electrically charged particles plucked from the planet's upper atmosphere by the solar wind. The electric field created by the solar wind, as well as other significant events on the Sun such as coronal mass ejections and solar flares, rip ions out of the planet's polar regions, creating a cloud of charged particles that resembles a mohawk.
8. There is impact glass on Mars that could save life.
Impactite is a type of rock created as a result of a meteorite impact, i.e., shock-explosive (impact) action. It is actually a mixture of various rocks, minerals, glass and crystals formed due to enormous pressure and temperature. Known sources of impactite on Earth are the Alamo fireball crater in Nevada and the Darwin crater in Tasmania. Last year, NASA found new sources of this substance on Mars.
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has discovered deposits of impact glass preserved in several craters on the Red Planet. In 2014, scientist Peter Schultz showed that similar glass found in Argentina preserved plant matter and organic molecules, so it is possible that impact glass on Mars may also contain traces of ancient life.
If humans ever settle Mars, they will have to develop methods of feeding colonists on the Red Planet. According to scientists from Wageningen University, there are now four vegetable and grain crops that can be grown in Martian soil and that are suitable for consumption afterwards.
These four crops are tomatoes, radishes, rye and peas. Dutch scientists grew them in soil whose composition was as close as possible to that of Mars, based on NASA data. Although this soil contains high levels of heavy metals such as cadmium and copper, food grown in it did not absorb these metals in sufficient quantities to pose a risk to humans.
Rovers and probes have been studying the Martian dunes for quite some time, but recent images taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have scientists somewhat puzzled. In February 2016, the spacecraft transmitted images of complex dunes that closely resembled the dots and dashes used in Morse code. Scientists believe that most likely an old meteorite crater limited the amount of sand from which the dunes were formed, which led to their unusual shape.
The dash dunes were supposedly formed by winds that blew at right angles from two directions, which created their linear shape. But scientists cannot yet explain how the “point” dunes were formed.
5. Martian mineral mystery
The region of Mars explored by the Curiosity rover in 2015 raised many questions for NASA scientists. This area, known as "Marayas", is a geologically unusual area where a layer of sandstone sits on a "cushion" of mudstone. Marayas has exceptionally high concentrations of silica - up to 90 percent in some rocks. Silicon dioxide is a chemical compound found in rocks and minerals on Earth, most notably quartz.
According to Curiosity project scientist Albert Yen, standard processes for increasing silica concentrations involve either dissolving other ingredients or introducing silica from another source. In any case, you need water. The scientists were even more surprised when they took rock samples. For the first time on Mars, they stumbled upon a mineral called tridymite. Although tridymite is incredibly rare on Earth, huge amounts of it ended up in Marayas and no one has any idea where it came from.
4. White planet
There was a time when the famous Red Planet was actually more white than red. According to astronomers at the Southern Research Institute in Boulder, this is because Mars relatively recently experienced an ice age much more extreme than those experienced on Earth. The team came to this conclusion by observing layers of ice at the north pole of Mars. Using ground penetrating radar, astronomers saw a cross-section in the ice structure 2 km below Mars's icy crust, purportedly evidence that the planet experienced an intense ice age 370,000 years ago, with another expected 150,000 years ago.
3. Martian underground volcanoes
Newly discovered deposits of tridymite indicate violent volcanic activity on Mars in the past. New data from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter also suggests that Mars once had volcanoes that erupted beneath the ice. The probe studied a region of the Red Planet known as the "Sisyphi Montes."
It has a large number of flat-topped mountains, which are similar in shape to the Earth's volcanoes that erupted under the ice. When an eruption like this occurs, it is usually powerful enough to break through the ice layer and shoot large amounts of ash into the air. This also leaves a clear trace of minerals and other compounds, similar to the one found at Sisyphi Montes.
2. Ancient Martian mega-tsunamis
Scientists are still arguing about whether there once was a northern ocean on the Red Planet. However, new research indicates that the ocean did exist and was subject to huge tsunamis that dwarf its terrestrial counterparts. Until now, evidence pointing to the existence of an ancient ocean was considered to be the remains of a coastline, but tsunamis up to 120 meters high, which hit the shore every three million years, simply erased the coastline.
Scientists are especially interested in studying craters near the coastline. After all, water must have accumulated in them over millions of years, which makes such craters ideal places to look for signs of ancient life.
1. Mars had more water than the Arctic Ocean
Although the location of Mars' ocean is still debated, scientists agree that the Red Planet used to have a lot of water. NASA suggests that Mars once had enough water to completely cover the planet's surface in one giant ocean 140 meters deep.
However, the water was likely concentrated in an ocean larger than Earth's Arctic Ocean, which covered approximately 19 percent of Mars' surface. It is also estimated that Mars lost 87 percent of its water, which evaporated into space.
Mars becomes a testing ground for all kinds of fabrications
This is precisely the conclusion that many Internet users came to after becoming acquainted with the latest “discovery” of Taiwanese ufologist Scott Waring. Look at the photos, check out the videos that this tireless detective of all things paranormal has posted on his website, and draw your own conclusions.
The existence of extraterrestrial life has worried humanity since ancient times. The solar system became the first place where scientific minds hoped to find living organisms. With the development of science, it was possible to find out that the most probable is life on Mars. Legends of antiquity, supported by scientific facts and photographs of Mars, indicate that the existence of life beyond the Earth is possible.
The mystery of the red planet
Today the planet Mars is being actively explored. The news relates to strange finds, unexplained photographs. A trip to Mars is planned soon, which will either finally debunk the myth of extraterrestrial life or confirm its existence in the solar system. The significant distance to Mars makes the expedition long and difficult; you can read about preparations for it on our website. The available videos of Mars are food for thought about the structure of the World.
News about Mars- these are not only NASA reports, but also mysterious, unexplainable mysteries. The most famous photographs of Mars contain an incredible picture: the geolandscape on one side clearly resembles a human face, nearby there are pyramids similar in structure to the pyramids in Egypt. The monolith on Phobos, the Hangar, the mysterious finds of the Mars rover, the amazing shapes of the landscape are part of the incompletely researched facts that cause heated debate.
Unidentified researchers claim that there was life on Mars. Assumptions about the connection between the culture and technology of Ancient Egypt and the race that previously inhabited Mars have impressive evidence. The current interest of official astronomy in Mars presents new mysteries, the answers to which you will find in this section.
The latest news about Mars is published in this section. The section includes unique photos, videos, hypotheses of scientists and other researchers.
Meanwhile, Waring continues to find mysterious artifacts in the “photographs of Mars”...
While conspiracy theorists assure Internet users that NASA has not launched any rovers on Mars, and all Martian photographs were taken on the deserted Canadian island of Devon, the tireless Taiwanese ufologist Scott Waring continues to find evidence of intelligent Martian life in these photos.
