WE ARE dipping a toe into the Red Planet鈥檚 atmosphere.
The European Space Agency鈥檚 Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), part of the ExoMars project, went into orbit around Mars on 19 October.
On 15 March, it performed the first of seven thruster burns that will bring its orbit low enough to feel drag from the Martian atmosphere without endangering the spacecraft. This is the start of a process called aerobraking, which will slowly bring the orbiter closer to the planet鈥檚 surface.
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If it goes well, by early 2018, TGO will drop from an elliptical one-day orbit to a two-hour circular one.
But the manoeuvre will require near-constant monitoring. 鈥淭he atmospheric models aren鈥檛 perfect, so we have to 鈥榝eel鈥� our way down,鈥� Chris White, a spacecraft operations engineer, wrote in an ESA blog post.
Once in its final orbit, TGO will begin its main science phase, measuring methane, looking for water and talking with rovers.
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淢ars orbiter dip鈥�
