Schiaparelli lander Trace Gas Orbiter Schiaparelli lander Trace Gas Orbiter Schiaparelli lander Trace Gas Orbiter Schiaparelli lander Trace Gas Orbiter Trace Gas Orbiter Schiaparelli lander European Space Agency/ATG Medialab

The ExoMars spacecraft has two components: the solar-powered Trace Gas Orbiter and the Schiaparelli lander.

The mission will search the Martian atmosphere for methane and other gases that might be produced by microbial life on Mars.

Liftoff

The ExoMars spacecraft was launched on March 14 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The spacecraft took seven months to travel 300 million miles to Mars.

ESA/Stephane Corvaja

Separation

Three days before arriving at Mars, the spacecraft released the Schiaparelli lander to coast toward the planet.

ESA

Touchdown

The lander was designed to carve through the atmosphere, release its parachute, separate from its outer shell and fire thrusters as it fell to the surface. But signals from the lander stopped shortly before it was expected to land.

ESA

The landing site

The lander was supposed to touch down on Meridiani Planum, near the site where NASA’s Opportunity rover landed in 2004.

Endeavor Crater Iazu Crater Opportunity rover 5 MILES Victoria Crater Bopolu Crater Planned landing site MERIDIANI PLANUM Endeavor Crater Iazu Crater Opportunity rover 5 MILES Victoria Crater Bopolu Crater Planned landing site MERIDIANI PLANUM Endeavor Crater Iazu Crater Opportunity rover 5 MILES Victoria Crater Bopolu Crater Planned landing site MERIDIANI PLANUM Endeavor Crater Iazu Crater Opportunity rover 5 MILES Victoria Crater Bopolu Crater Planned landing site MERIDIANI PLANUM Endeavor Crater Opportunity rover Victoria Crater Bopolu Crater Planned landing site MERIDIANI PLANUM ESA/German Aerospace Center/Freie Universität Berlin

In the neighborhood

The Opportunity rover spent more than two years studying nearby Victoria Crater, below, then drove to Endeavor Crater.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona/Cornell Univ./Ohio State Univ.

Opportunity explored the rim of Endeavor Crater, below, for five years. The rover is now descending toward the crater’s floor.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell Univ./Arizona State Univ.

A glimpse of Mars

The ExoMars mission’s first low-resolution image of Mars was taken on June 13 from a distance of 25 million miles.