Well , here we go . yr of study and million of miles travelled , but it all comes down to this .

Today at 10:48am EDT ( 3:48pm BST ) , ESA and Russia ’s ExoMars lander , named Schiaparelli , will attempt to partake down on the surface of Mars . The mission found in March , but after a journey of seven months , it will take just six minutes to infix the atmosphere and reach out the surface .

All the action from mission ascendence in Darmstadt , Germany , will be streamed live by ESA , starting at 9 am EDT ( 2 pm BST ) today . you’re able to catch all the actionhere , and we ’ve embedded the bouncy current below .

Confirmation of the landing is bear by about 11 am EDT ( 4 necropsy BST ) , thanks to an Indian wireless telescope that will sample to catch a signal from the lander .

To get to the surface in a region called Meridiani Planum , Schiaparelli will apply a heat shield to hold out the journey through the Martian air . parachute will then trim down its speed , before a set of thrusters bring it to just 2 meters ( 6.5 feet )   above the surface , where it will then detached - fall the remaining space , using a crushable bodily structure to outlive the impingement .

The lander will be taking paradigm on the way down , but it has no camera to take images of the control surface , which seems a scrap of a   missed chance view the order of magnitude of this mission .

Schiaparelli should last between two and eight Martian days , which are 40 hour foresighted than Earth days , before its batteries carry out .

An animation of Schiaparelli ’s bloodline to the surface

At around the same time as the landing place , ESA ’s Trace Gas Orbiter ( TGO ) is scheduled to insert orbit around Mars . This spacecraft will attempt to break down the amount of methane on Mars over the next few years , which may have biological origins .

Although Schiaparelli does have a fewscientific instrumentson card , the main goal is to simply test how to land on Mars . This same technique will be used to put down the much more innovative ExoMars roamer on the surface in 2021 , which will look for signs of preceding or present living .

Europe has never landed on Mars . Their last attempt , the Beagle 2 lander in 2003 , stop in disaster when the lander failed to operate on the airfoil .

Today , we ’ll find out if Schiaparelli fares well . Do n’t leave out it .