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PARIS – The Exomars mission is facing a parachute system problem that could delay its launch on Mars, originally scheduled for the summer of 2020, if experts can not solve it quickly.
Europe and Russia are participating in the mission, which is to send a European probe to the surface of Mars to dig in search of traces of the past life. The Russian "Proton" missile carries the probe to its destination.
The flight is scheduled for July 25 to August 13, 2020 and will arrive on Mars in March 2021, but a problem with the parachute landing system could delay these dates.
Earlier this month, a major parachute test failed, the European Space Agency said on its website.
This operation was preceded by an experiment conducted at the end of May on the four parachutes in the Swedish skies, which was also a failure. Two parachutes were torn.
"All the team is ready for the competition in time," said Francois Spoto, director of the Exumars program at the European Commission, at the end of a working meeting held on Wednesday.
Engineers are investigating the cause of this problem and if no solution is found before the November-December testing in the United States, the decision to postpone will prevail.
If the experiment succeeds, another test in February should also succeed.
"Both experiments must succeed, otherwise we will not launch into space a device that does not work well," Sputo said.
The United States is the only country in the world to have been successful in probing and keeping Mars running.
European experts can ask the help of their American colleagues.
The first part of the Exomars mission failed in October 2016, as Europe failed to land the experimental "Sciapparelli" probe on Mars, where it collapsed at a high speed and s & rsquo; Is crushed, while the unmanned vehicle 'TG' Or 'orbited successfully in the orbit of the red planet.
Space agencies have specific dates for launching flights to Mars, when their orbit is close to that of the Earth. This is done every two years.
Exomars aims to search for all traces of life on Mars, which, in its deep history, contained bodies of water and was more temperate, elements that arouse the suspicion that scientists had some form of life.
Europe has already launched a probe on the surface of "Titan", one of Saturn's moons, in 2005.
In 2014, he had a unique success landing the Velay probe on the surface of Comet Chori.
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