21 Oct 2016

Keep Wednesday 19 October free. Italy's going to Mars. After a seven month journey for the European and Russian ExoMars 2016 mission, it's nearly time to “take” the red planet. It'll be a war on two fronts: ExoMars will need to conquer Mars from both the earth and sky almost at the same time.
Operations will begin on 16 October, when the Schiaparelli descent module will undock from the mother probe. After separation, the lander, built by an Italian-led team, will aim for the surface of Mars while the Trace Gas Orbiter will continue moving closer to the planet. D-day will be Wednesday 19.

The TGO will need to enter orbit around the red planet while Schiaparelli will plunge into the Martian atmosphere at around 21,000 km per hour. Thanks to a sophisticated system of parachutes and braking engines, the lander will slow before landing close to the Martian equator, on the Meridiani Planum.
This will be the most critical phase of the mission and will be over in a couple of minutes. Just under six. 360 seconds of terror that recall the descent to Mars of the lander's American “colleague” Curiosity.

Confirmation of Schiaparelli's touchdown is expected on Earth after 6.33 pm, while the TGO should communicate its correct entry into orbit from 8.25 pm onwards.
Europe will be awaiting the arrival of the two signals at the Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome, where the official international event Italy goes to Mars will be held, organised by the Italian Space Agency together with ESA, INAF, Leonardo-Finmeccanica, Thales Alenia Space Italia and the National Geographic Channel. The event will include a preview of the first show of the docu-film series Mars by Ron Howard and produced by NAT-GEO.

A parallel event will also be held at the ASI offices in Tor Vergata. The long ExoMars marathon can be followed in live streaming on ASITV, on live video on the Italian Space Agency's Facebook page and on Twitter with the hashtag #italiavasumarte.