ExoMars 2016: mission and targets

Project start

January 7, 2016

Declared end

not declared

The start the archive declares is the start of the project, not the launch, and an end it does not declare does not mean the mission is still running.

Targets you can open in 3D:

• Mars

A declared target is what the archive files the mission’s data under, not a record of observation.

ExoMars 2016 was launched in March 2016 and consists of the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and Schiaparelli, an entry, descent and landing demonstrator module. The primary goal of the mission is to detect trace gasses in the Martian atmosphere in particular to follow up on earlier detections of Methane. Schiaparelli, the technology demonstration lander, did not reach the surface, therefore the only data archived was from the DREAMS instrument, which was obtained during the cruise phase of the mission. The Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) entered science operations at Mars in April 2018 and has been operating nominally since. It has 4 instruments, CaSSIS, a 4 colour push frame camera, FREND, an epithermal neutron detector, and ACS and NOMAD which are high resolution spectrometers covering the UV to thermal IR range optimised for atmospheric studies. All instruments coninue in good health apart from the Thermal Infrared (TIRVIM) channel on ACS. TIRVIM stopped working on December 3rd, 2019 due to HW failure. Since then it has been kept on to ensure thermal mode of the ACS but without producing science data. Housekeeping data is still being generated and archived as of today.

Quoted in English, as the archive publishes it, read on October 4, 2026. The rest of the published text is a table, which reads only at the source.

Identifier in the archive, which is its citation: urn:esa:psa:context:investigation:mission.em16

NASA Planetary Data System, PDS Registry, investigation context products. Dates and targets read on September 29, 2026; how to cite the archive: https://pds.nasa.gov/datastandards/citing/

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