All Articles in Mars

The ground test model (GTM) of the Rosalind Franklin rover for the upcoming ExoMars mission will soon leave Thales Alenia Space’s Turin plant for a short trip to the Rover Operational Control Center (ROCC), in Altec. This model will now be put through its paces on the R...

It’s getting to be quite a long time since the first human space flight. Sixty years ago, on April 12, 1961 – nearly 58 years after the Wright Brothers made the first powered flight – Yuri Gagarin orbited the Earth in the Vostok 3KA-3 capsule, proving that humans could...

After a journey lasting nearly seven months, NASA’s Perseverance rover touched down on Mars yesterday, February 18. It landed in the Jezero Crater, a 45-kilometer (28 mile) hole in the ground about 18 degrees north of the Martian equator. This was a huge success for NAS...

Space exploration isn’t simply a sign of humanity’s hubris or a brazen desire to find new places to live and new sources of wealth. If we take the risk of venturing beyond our terrestrial home, it’s also to learn more about ourselves and our planet, improve life on Eart...

Turin, October 14, 2020 – Thales Alenia Space, the joint venture between Thales (67%) and Leonardo (33%), has signed an Authorization To Proceed (ATP) with Airbus Defence and Space, prime contractor of the program, to contribute to the Earth Return Orbiter (ERO), the ke...

While the ExoMars* program may seem like science fiction to some of you, it’s about to head for the planet Mars on its second mission. The entire spacecraft, comprising the carrier and descent modules, the landing platform and ESA’s new rover, is scheduled for a 2022 la...

On July 30, 2020 at 7:50 am local time, an Atlas V rocket will lift off with NASA’s Perseverance rover from Cape Canaveral in Florida, en route to the Red Planet. This is a decisive moment in NASA’s Mars 2020 mission, designed to study the surface of Mars, look for trac...

The Descent and Carrier modules for the ExoMars 2020 mission have been integrated in Turin. The spacecraft in launch configuration will now be shipped to Cannes for environmental tests, before the launch to Mars to search for traces of life. ...

While ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter is sniffing the Martian atmosphere, the ExoMars 2020 Rover will analyse the deepest-ever subsurface soil samples to find any forms of life on the Red Planet.

A new phase of space exploration is leading to discoveries about our planet and about ourselves