Some info on the european ESA Exomars 2016 mission to Mars in cooperation with Russia. It sends the exomars trace gas orbiter and the Schiaparelli experimental lander to Mars. Schiaparelli will touch down on Oct. 16, at 15:48 CET. For some that would be 3:48 PM.

The orbiter will be a long term science mission. Schiaparelli is an experimental lander that will provide atmospheric data like temperature, windspeed, humidity, pressure, dust. Unfortunately it is only battery powered and will expire after a few days.



Some history of the project. Initially it was a joint ESA NASA project. NASA would provide the launch vehicle and an RTG, a nuclear battery that would power Schiaparelli to be a long term weather station on Mars. But Congress terminated funding and NASA dropped out.
The project was continued in cooperation with Russia which provided a Proton rocket for launch. Proton is not very reliable but this one worked flawlessly and sent the probes on their way to Mars. Russia would also provide a RTG but export permit issues delayed it and it was not availble at the time the technical design for Schiaparelli was finalized. So now it has only batteries and will last only a few days. It will provide pictures of the landing but has no camera that can provide pictues after landing.

After NASA had committed to the project, cancelling the funding by Congress was not a very bright move by Congress IMO. It displayed NASA as an unreliable partner.