Schiaparelli – Astronomy Now

Probe into crash of ESA lander recommends more checks on ExoMars descent craft

24 May 2017 Stephen Clark

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 that doomed the probe’s descent through the Martian atmosphere.

ESA says doomed Mars lander succumbed to bad altitude reading

30 November 2016 Stephen Clark

One second of faulty data led to the destruction of a European spacecraft on final descent to Mars in October.

New images resolve finer details of Mars lander’s crash site

28 October 2016 Stephen Clark

Imagery captured by a sharp-eyed camera aboard a NASA orbiter shows where Europe’s Schiaparelli lander cratered on Mars last week, exploding into fine bits of shrapnel and debris after after an apparent software problem doomed the mission, officials said Thursday.

Mars orbiter locates Schiaparelli lander’s crash site

21 October 2016 Stephen Clark

Views from NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter released Friday show the crash site where Europe’s experimental Schiaparelli lander fell to the red planet’s surface from a height of several miles, leaving a distinct dark patch on the Martian landscape.

Last data from Schiaparelli Mars lander hold clues to what went wrong

21 October 2016 Stephen Clark

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 equatorial plains of Mars, officials said Thursday.

ESA celebrates ExoMars orbiter success, keeps vigil for lost lander

19 October 2016 Stephen Clark

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 probe just before touchdown.

Live coverage: ExoMars orbiter safely arrives at Mars, lander’s fate uncertain

19 October 2016 Stephen Clark

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.

Schiaparelli’s descent to Mars in real time

17 October 2016 Astronomy Now

A realtime animation of the European Space Agency’s ExoMars Schiaparelli module entering and descending through the atmosphere to land on Mars.

ExoMars orbiter fine-tunes path toward red planet

29 July 2016 Stephen Clark

A European spacecraft cruising toward Mars fired its main engine, tweaking its trajectory and helping set up for carefully-choreographed simultaneous maneuvers to place part of the tandem mission into orbit around the red planet and deposit a stationary battery-powered lander on the Martian surface.

Massive European spacecraft launched toward Mars

14 March 2016 Stephen Clark

Boosted off planet Earth by a Russian Proton rocket, a European-built space probe departed for Mars on Monday, beginning a mission to test future landing technologies and search for methane, a potential signature of microbial life.