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> 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> 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> Scientists were waiting for word Wednesday on whether the European Space Agency’s experimental Schiaparelli probe had safely touched down on Mars.

Signals received from the lander indicated that it entered the atmosphere of the red planet as planned and deployed its parachute.

Schiaparelli is meant to test technology for a future European rover and avoid the fate of Europe’s ill-starred Beagle 2 robot, which failed to function after landing on Mars 13 years ago.

The probe is part of a larger mission called ExoMars that will help in the hunt for life on the planet.

Schiaparelli was released from the mother ship, the Trace Gas Orbiter, on Sunday. Scientists said the gentle approach would turn into a six-minute hell ride when the probe plunged into the hot, dusty Martian atmosphere and hurtled toward the surface at 21,000 kph (13,050 mph).

If all went to plan, Schiaparelli would deploy a parachute and then thrusters to slow down to 10 kph (6.2 mph) before hitting the surface.

Don McCoy, the manager of the ExoMars project, said some data had been received from the lander confirming its entry and the deployment of its parachute. More information was expected later Wednesday.

“We can’t conclude the real status of (Schiaparelli) at the moment but indeed it did enter the atmosphere,” McCoy said at mission control in Darmstadt, Germany.

Landing a spacecraft on Mars is notoriously difficult and several past missions have failed, including the European Space Agency’s previous attempt in 2003 with the rover Beagle 2. It made it to Mars but its solar panels didn’t unfold properly, preventing it from communicating.

While Schiaparelli has some scientific instruments on board, its main purpose is to rehearse the landing and test technology for a European rover mission to Mars in 2020. NASA has successfully placed several robotic vehicles on the planet, including the Opportunity and Curiosity rovers.

The ExoMars program, which comprises the current and 2020 mission, is ESA’s first interplanetary mission jointly undertaken with the Russian space agency Roscosmos.

Schiaparelli took off for Mars in March aboard a Russian rocket together with the Trace Gas Orbiter.

The orbiter, which also has NASA-made instruments on board, will analyze methane and other gases in the atmosphere.

Methane is created by biological or geological activity and breaks down within a few hundred years once it reaches the atmosphere, suggesting there is biological or geological activity on Mars now or in the recent past.

The prospect of finding even microscopic organisms on Mars has excited scientists for some time, but so far none has been discovered.

Europe and Russia celebrated placing the robot explorer into Mars orbit on Wednesday, but ground controllers faced an anxious night searching for the tiny lander it had dispatched to the Red Planet’s surface.

The Schiaparelli was meant to touch down at 1448 GMT.

But contact with the paddling pool-sized lander was lost during its six-minute descent through the Red Planet’s thin, carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere.

“It’s clear these are not good signs,” ESA operations head Paolo Ferri said at ground control in Darmstadt, Germany. “But we need more information” before declaring the operation failed.

Schiaparelli was Europe’s first attempt at a Mars landing since the British-built Beagle 2 was lost without trace 13 years ago .

An update should be ready by 0800 GMT on Thursday, Ferri said.

On the upside, flight operations manager Michel Denis announced that the TGO itself, which is to sniff Mars’ atmosphere for gases possibly excreted by molecular life forms, had correctly entered Red Planet’s orbit.

“It’s a good spacecraft in the right place, and we have a mission around Mars,” he said.

The TGO and Schiaparelli comprise phase one of the ExoMars mission through which Europe and Russia seek to join the United States in probing the hostile Martian surface. </s> Older European and U.S. spacecraft already in orbit relayed data of the lander's six-minute descent. Then transmission stopped, leaving questions over what state the disc-shaped 1,272-pound Schiaparelli probe was in.

"It is clear that these are not good signs," said Paolo Ferri, the European Space Agency's head of mission operations.

However, the primary part of the mission, bringing the lander's mothership into orbit around Mars to search for signs of life, was a success, the agency said.

"To fly to Mars is a very big challenge. To fly and be in safe orbit is a very big challenge," ESA Director General Jan Woerner said at ESA's Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt.

Schiaparelli, which is testing technologies for a rover due to follow in 2020, represents only the second European attempt to land a craft on the red planet. Britain's Beagle 2 was ejected from the Mars Express spacecraft in 2003 but never made contact after failing to deploy its solar panels on landing.

At the time it was dubbed "a heroic failure."

ESA said more information about Schiaparelli should be available on Thursday, when scientists have had a chance to analyze data from the orbiting craft.

"Cross your fingers, we still have hope," Woerner said on Wednesday.

Landing on Mars, currently some 35 million miles away from its nearest planetary neighbor Earth, is a notoriously difficult task that has thwarted most efforts by Russia and given U.S. space agency NASA trouble as well.

The planet's hostile environment has not detracted from its allure, with President Barack Obama recently highlighting his pledge to send people to the surface by the 2030s.

"With this mission we're laying the foundation for going there," astronaut Alexander Gerst, who is set to become the first German commander of the International Space Station in 2018, told Reuters TV.

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, and the U.S. entrepreneur has said he would like to launch the first crew as early as 2024.

The primary goal of ExoMars, the European-Russian program that launched Schiaparelli, is to find out whether life has ever existed on Mars.

The spacecraft on which the lander traveled, Trace Gas Orbiter, 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.

"If there is life in our solar system beyond Earth, then Mars is the most interesting planet," ESA's Woerner told Reuters TV.

The second part of the ExoMars mission, delayed to 2020 from 2018, will deliver a European rover to 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, 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 $1.4 billion. Russia's contribution comes on top of that. </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> 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> The disc-shaped 577-kg (1,272 lb) Schiaparelli lander, which will test technologies for a rover due to follow in 2020, is expected to enter Mars's atmosphere at a speed of nearly 21,000 km (13,049 miles) per hour at 1442 GMT.

It will use a parachute and thrusters to slow down before touching down on the planet's surface only six minutes later.

The lander is named for Giovanni Schiaparelli, the Italian astronomer who in 1877 began mapping the topography of Mars, extending study of what are now known as the planet's canals, a mistranslation of the Italian word canali, or channels.

Schiaparelli is part of the European-Russian ExoMars program, which will search for signs of past and present life on Mars and represents only the second European attempt to land a craft on the red planet, after Britain's Beagle 2 was ejected from the Mars Express spacecraft in 2003 but never made contact after failing to deploy its solar panels upon landing.

At the time it was dubbed "a heroic failure".

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.

A seemingly hostile environment on Mars has not detracted from its allure, 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 spacecraft on which the Schiaparelli lander traveled to Mars, Trace Gas Orbiter (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 SIFI.MI.

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> 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.
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.