ESA accept probe landing failure
20 Oct 2016 by Evoluted New Media
ESA scientists have announced that the ExoMars Schiaparelli did not survive its landing onto the Red Planet.
ESA scientists have announced that the ExoMars Schiaparelli did not survive its landing onto the Red Planet.
The probe sent communications to the Trace Gas Orbiter – its mothership – after it began to make its way to Mar’s surface. Shortly after this, it fell silent. Researchers at ESA are now trawling through data received in the early hours of the 20th of October to better understand what may have gone wrong.
Andrea Accomazzo, Head of Planetary Missions on ExoMars, said he was extremely confident that ESA would be able to find out what had happened to the probe. “Schiaparelli stopped transmitting on the order of approximately 50secs before the expected touch-down time. We expect NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory orbiters to attempt imaging of the landing site in the coming days.”
The Schiaparelli was scheduled to land on the Red Planet at 14:58 GMT yesterday. The European Space Agency expected to hear a radio transmission from the probe after it belly-flopped onto the Martian surface. However, it fell silent during its descent. Partial analysis of data has revealed the entry and descent stages occurred as they should have but there was premature ejection of the back heat shield and parachute.
ESA director of human spaceflight and robotic exploration, David Parker, said: “In terms of the Schiaparelli test module, we have data coming back that allow us to fully understand the steps that did occur, and why the soft landing did not occur.
“From the engineering standpoint, it’s what we want from a test, and we have extremely valuable data to work with. We will have an enquiry board to dig deeper into the data and we cannot speculate further at this time.”
Although the researchers are not able to communicate with the probe, the other stage of the mission, placing the Trace Gas Orbiter in Mar’s orbit, was successful. The satellite will analyse a wide range of atmospheric gases such as methane, water vapour, nitrogen oxides and acetylene that could have been given off by living organisms. From March 2018, it is expected to begin returning results to Earth.
The successful landing and testing of the Martian soil by Schiaparelli would have provided information to help aid the second phase of ExoMars. Scheduled to launch in 2020, this aims to land a rover on the planet to collect and analyse samples for signs of life.
