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The European Space Agency (ESA) is about to land the Schiaparelli lander on the surface of Mars on 19 October. This is a technology demonstration vehicle carried by the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), which is the first of a series of joint missions between ESA and Roscosmos to study Mars. Because this is a technology demonstration, it has a very limited science mission. It has sensors to monitor the atmosphere, but there is no camera to send back images from the surface. The main science mission will be carried out by the Trace Gas Orbiter whose primary mission is "to gain a better understanding of methane and other atmospheric gases that are present in small concentrations (less than 1% of the atmosphere) but nevertheless could be evidence for possible biological or geological activity."
Schiaparelli is aiming for a smooth plain known as Meridiani Planum. NASA’s Opportunity rover is situated around 15 kilometres outside Schiaparelli's 100 km × 15 km landing ellipse, and will try to get snapshots of the probe's descent, says Mark Lemmon, a planetary scientist at Texas A&M University in College Station. Although ExoMars's parachute may appear as no more than a speck, the pictures could help reveal how winds influence its trajectory, says Lemmon, adding that such shots would represent the first time a Mars landing has been seen from below.
As of its last update on October 17th, the ESA Timeline reports, in part:
| Start of 24/7 ground station contact with TGO | 9 October 2016 |
| Schiaparelli – TGO separation [6, 7] | 16 October 2016 at 14:42 UTC* |
| TGO performed Mars avoidance manoeuvre [8] | 17 October 2016 at 02:42 UTC* |
| TGO insertion into Mars orbit | 19 October 2016, scheduled for 13:04 UTC* |
| Schiaparelli lands on Mars | 19 October 2016 |
| Schiaparelli science operations begin | Start 19 October 2016, 2 sols** planned |
* Time on spacecraft. Between 16 and 20 October the one-way light travel time is between 9.5 and 10 minutes.
** A sol is one martian day, equivalent to 24 hours and 37 minutes.
Mars has become quite the destination! These are all currently underway: "Mars Science Laboratory (MSL, aka Curiosity)", "Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)", "Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM)", "Mars Odyssey (M01O)", and "MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN Mission)". All of these are communicating with Earth via NASA's Deep Space Network (DSN)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 20 2016, @01:52PM
I missed the press conference (was at 3:00 AM local,) but they've since released a press statement [esa.int], parts of which say:
... Early indications from both the radio signals captured by the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT), an experimental telescope array located near Pune, India, and from orbit by ESA’s Mars Express, suggested the module had successfully completed most steps of its 6-minute descent through the Martian atmosphere. This included the deceleration through the atmosphere, and the parachute and heat shield deployment, for example.
But the signals recorded by both Pune and Mars Express stopped shortly before the module was expected to touch down on the surface. Discrepancies between the two data sets are being analysed by experts at ESA’s space operations centre in Darmstadt, Germany
....
The data have been partially analysed and confirm that the entry and descent stages occurred as expected, with events diverging from what was expected after the ejection of the back heat shield and parachute. This ejection itself appears to have occurred earlier than expected, but analysis is not yet complete.
The thrusters were confirmed to have been briefly activated although it seems likely that they switched off sooner than expected, at an altitude that is still to be determined.
...
“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,” David Parker,ESA’s Director of Human Spaceflight and Robotic Exploration.
“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.”
(Emphasis mine)
As above, not coming right out and saying the lander is gone. But OTOH it looks like they've got data that can be scientifically analyzed, and the Schiaparelli lander was a research testbed for future landers. The science will have just occurred before they had expected it, I suppose. ;) And it looks like we do have another satellite in orbit around Mars that is functional and relaying data. :)
(BTW, sorry if this is a story already in the feed - haven't checked new stories today, just this one so far 'cause SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE! YEEEEEEHAAAAA!)