{"id":19197,"date":"2016-10-21T22:20:02","date_gmt":"2016-10-21T14:20:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/nasas-mars-orbiter-spots-the-blackened-remains-of-europes-lost-schiaparelli-lander\/"},"modified":"2016-10-21T22:20:02","modified_gmt":"2016-10-21T14:20:02","slug":"nasas-mars-orbiter-spots-the-blackened-remains-of-europes-lost-schiaparelli-lander","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/nasas-mars-orbiter-spots-the-blackened-remains-of-europes-lost-schiaparelli-lander\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA\u2019s Mars orbiter spots the blackened remains of Europe\u2019s lost Schiaparelli lander"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_283814\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-283814\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-283814\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/161021-mars-ctx2-630x556.jpg\" alt=\"Schiaparelli crash site\" width=\"630\" height=\"556\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/161021-mars-ctx2-630x556.jpg 630w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/161021-mars-ctx2.jpg 632w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-283814\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">This image from NASA\u2019s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows the landing zone&nbsp;for the European Space Agency\u2019s Schiaparelli probe on Mars. Analysts say the bright spot shows where the lander\u2019s parachute fell, and&nbsp;the black spot shows where the lander hit. (Credit: NASA \/ JPL-Caltech \/ MSSS)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>NASA\u2019s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has caught sight of the blackened spot where a European lander apparently hit the Martian surface, providing the first visual evidence&nbsp;that the Schiaparelli probe did indeed bite the dust.<\/p>\n<p>Before-and-after pictures from the orbiter\u2019s low-resolution Context Camera also showed the appearance of a brand-new bright spot in the expected landing zone in Mars\u2019 Meridiani Planum region. That bright spot is thought to be&nbsp;Schiaparelli\u2019s 40-foot-wide parachute, which was apparently ejected earlier than intended.<\/p>\n<p>The \u201cbefore\u201d image was taken in May, and the \u201cafter\u201d image was taken on Thursday, a day after the lander\u2019s descent.<\/p>\n<p>The pictures will help guide follow-up observations to be made next week using MRO\u2019s High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, or HiRISE. The European Space Agency\u2019s ExoMars team says even the low-resolution imagery is consistent with a high-speed impact that would have destroyed the lander.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Schiaparelli crashed on Mars!\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fakP3Ztm1Ro?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The black spot is about half a mile north of the parachute. It measures roughly 50 feet wide by 130 feet long. \u201cThis is interpreted as arising from the impact of the Schiaparelli module itself following a much longer free fall than planned, after the thrusters were switched off prematurely,\u201d ESA said in today\u2019s status report.<\/p>\n<p>The evidence so far suggests that Schiaparelli dropped from an altitude of somewhere between a mile and two and a half miles (2 to 4 kilometers), and hit the ground&nbsp;at more than 180 mph (300 kilometers per hour). ESA said the black spot could have been caused by the explosion of Schiaparelli\u2019s thruster propellant tanks, or merely by the disturbance in surface material.<\/p>\n<p>The spots are located about 3.3 miles west of Schiaparelli\u2019s intended landing point, but well within the 60-by-9-mile target ellipse.<\/p>\n<p>Although Schiaparelli is gone, its companion probe, the Trace Gas Orbiter, is in good health and tracing an eccentric orbit around Mars. Over the next few months, the spacecraft will go through a series of aerobraking maneuvers to move into a circular orbit 250 miles above the Martian surface. Next March, the orbiter will begin its primary mission: studying the Martian atmosphere in search of the signatures of biological activity.<\/p>\n<p>The Trace Gas Orbiter has also been relaying the telemetry it received from Schiaparelli during Wednesday\u2019s descent. Those readings are being analyzed back on Earth in hopes of determining what caused the lander to jettison its parachute and turn off its thrusters prematurely.<\/p>\n<p>Russian Space Web reported that Schiaparelli\u2019s guidance and navigation software may have been at fault.<\/p>\n<p>If ESA\u2019s investigators can zero in on the causes of Schiaparelli\u2019s failure, that should help ESA\u2019s ExoMars team prepare for a more ambitious 2020 mission that would send a rover to the Red Planet\u2019s surface.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This image from NASA\u2019s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows the landing zone&nbsp;for the European Space Agency\u2019s Schiaparelli probe on Mars. Analysts say the bright spot shows where the lander\u2019s parachute fell, and&nbsp;the black spot shows where the lander hit. (Credit: NASA \/ JPL-Caltech \/ MSSS) NASA\u2019s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has caught sight of the blackened spot [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[367,1851,3304,3557],"class_list":["post-19197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-mars","tag-mars-reconnaissance-orbiter","tag-schiaparelli","tag-trace-gas-orbiter"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19197"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19197\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}