ESA Publishes Picture Of Mars Polar Dunes Taken By Russian-European ExoMars Mission

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 17th September, 2019) The European Space Agency (ESA) has published a picture of dunes in the north polar region of Mars taken from the orbit of the planet by the Trace Gas Orbiter spacecraft of the joint Russian-European mission ExoMars-2016.

The image that depicts sand dunes and a thin layer of carbon dioxide ice was taken on May 25, 2019. The curve of the dunes gives scientists an idea of the wind direction on Mars.

ExoMars is a joint mission of the ESA and Russia's Roscosmos space agency. The first stage of the project, ExoMars-2016, included the launch of the European Trace Gas Orbiter and the Schiaparelli Demonstrator Module.

Schiaparelli failed to achieve a soft landing, crashing on the surface of Mars in October 2016.

ExoMars-2020 is the second stage of the joint project. The mission will include the launch of a European Mars rover and a landing module developed in Russia. The Russian landing platform will be equipped with 11 Russian and two European scientific instruments, while the Mars rover will have seven European and two Russian scientific devices on board. The mission is expected to be launched on July 25, 2020, and planned to reach Mars in March 2021.