Trace Gas Orbiter in the context of Orbiter

The European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) serves as the main mission control centre for the European Space Agency (ESA) and is located in Darmstadt, Germany. ESOC's primary function is the operation of uncrewed spacecraft on behalf of ESA and the launch and early orbit phases (LEOP) of ESA and third-party missions. The Centre is also responsible for a range of operations-related activities within ESA and in cooperation with ESA's industry and international partners, including ground systems engineering, software development, flight dynamics and navigation, development of mission control tools and techniques and space debris studies.

ESOC's current major activities comprise operating planetary and solar missions, such as Mars Express and the Trace Gas Orbiter, astronomy & fundamental physics missions, such as Gaia and XMM Newton, and Earth observation missions such as CryoSat2 and Swarm.

ExoMars (Exobiology on Mars) is an astrobiology programme of the European Space Agency (ESA) composed of the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), the Schiaparelli lander, and a future rover Rosalind Franklin. The goals of ExoMars are to search for signs of past life on Mars, investigate how the Martian water and geochemical environment varies, investigate atmospheric trace gases and their sources and, by doing so, demonstrate the technologies for a future Mars sample-return mission.

The first part of the programme is a mission launched in 2016. The Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and a test stationary lander called Schiaparelli (designed to test new key technologies to safely deliver the subsequent rover mission) were launched on 14 March 2016. TGO entered Mars orbit on 19 October 2016, and proceeded to map the sources of methane (CH₄) and other trace gases present in the Martian atmosphere that could be evidence for possible biological or geological activity. The TGO features four instruments and acts as a communications relay satellite. The Schiaparelli experimental lander separated from TGO on 16 October and was maneuvered to land in Meridiani Planum, but it crashed on the surface of Mars.