Tag: Schiaparelli
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Probe into crash of ESA lander recommends more checks on ExoMars descent craft
Artist’s concept of the Schiaparelli lander with its parachute deployed. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab Investigators who studied the crash of the European Space Agency’s Schiaparelli lander on Mars last year have recommended more stringent testing and computer modeling before the launch of a joint European-Russian landing craft in 2020 to avoid a repeat of the mistakes…
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ESA says doomed Mars lander succumbed to bad altitude reading
Artist’s concept of the Schiaparelli lander inside its scorched heat shield. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab One second of faulty data led to the destruction of a European spacecraft on final descent to Mars last month, officials said Wednesday. An unexplained error in the Schiaparelli lander’s Inertial Measurement Unit, or IMU, fed incorrect data into the craft’s…
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New images resolve finer details of Mars lander’s crash site
This Oct. 25, 2016, image shows the area where the European Space Agency’s Schiaparelli test lander reached the surface of Mars, with magnified insets of three sites where components of the spacecraft hit the ground. At center-right is the main impact site of the Schiaparelli lander. The locations of the lander’s back shell and attached…
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Mars orbiter locates Schiaparelli lander’s crash site
Before-and-after images of the Schiaparelli landing site taken May 29, 2016, and on Thursday show two new features attributed to the lander. A dark fuzzy marking near the top of the frame is from the impact of the Schiaparelli lander, and a bright dot lower in the image is likely the lander’s parachute. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS…
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Last data from Schiaparelli Mars lander hold clues to what went wrong
Artist’s concept illustrating the moment the Schiaparelli lander was to jettison its back shell and parachute and ignite its descent engines. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab The first sign of trouble from Europe’s Schiaparelli lander came around the time the probe was supposed to jettison its parachute and fire thrusters to brake for touchdown on the vast…
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Live coverage: ExoMars orbiter steers into orbit around Mars, lander’s fate TBD
Live coverage of the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and the Schiaparelli lander arriving at Mars. Text updates will appear automatically below; there is no need to reload the page. Follow us on Twitter.
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ESA celebrates ExoMars orbiter success, keeps vigil for lost lander
Artist’s concept of the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter firing its main engine to enter orbit around Mars. Credit: ESA/ATG medialab A European-built orbiter designed to seek out the source of methane on Mars slipped into orbit around the red planet Wednesday after a seven-month interplanetary journey, but mission control lost contact with an experimental landing…
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ExoMars orbiter fine-tunes path toward red planet
Artist’s concept of the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter. Credit: Thales Alenia Space. A European spacecraft cruising toward Mars fired its main engine Thursday, tweaking its trajectory and helping set up for carefully-choreographed simultaneous maneuvers Oct. 19 to place part of the tandem mission into orbit around the red planet and deposit a stationary battery-powered lander…
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ExoMars orbiter and lander mated for final time
European technicians working at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan have bolted an Italian-built Mars lander to its mothership ahead of a March 14 launch toward the red planet. The attachment is a major step in preparations for next month’s launch the European Space Agency’s first mission to Mars since 2003, and the first of two…
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European Mars probe arrives at launch site
The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter is closed inside a shipping container before leaving Thales Alenia Space’s facility in Cannes, France, on Dec. 17. Credit: ESA – B. Bethge Three heavy-duty Antonov cargo planes flew components of Europe’s ExoMars orbiter and lander from Italy to the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazkhastan last week, setting up for a…