Mars may have claimed another spacecraft

[MowCowWhoHow III]

Source: Ars Technica

On Wednesday, the European Space Agency sought to become the second entity to successfully land a spacecraft on Mars with its Schiaparelli lander. And everything seemed to be going swimmingly right up until the point that Schiaparelli was to touch down.

The European scientists had been tracking the descent of Schiaparelli through an array of radio telescopes near Pune, India and were able to record the moment when the vehicle exited a plasma blackout. The scientists also received a signal that indicated parachute deployment. But during the critical final moments, when nine hydrazine-powered thrusters were supposed to fire to arrest Schiaparelli's descent, the signal disappeared.

At that point, the European Space Agency's webcast went silent for several minutes before one of the flight directors could be heard to say, "We expected the signal to continue, but clearly it did not. We don't want to jump to conclusions."

It was not clear whether the problem came with the lander or is due to a temporary issue with the communications link. The connection through the Indian communications array was characterized as "experimental," the European scientists said. We can expect a clearer assessment of the situation when the Mars Express spacecraft in orbit relays a recording of Schiaparelli's descent by or before 12:30pm ET. The spacecraft observed the landing attempt, but it must first swing away from Mars to point its main antenna at Earth before relaying data back.

Read more: http://arstechnica.com/science/2016/10/mars-may-have-claimed-another-spacecraft/

[exboyfil]

1. That is so sad

Hope it comes back.

[question everything]

10. +1 (nt)

[dembotoz]

2. cue the jokes about the tech support desk being in india

have you tried to reboot?

[Baclava]

14. Is this the same group that built those harpoons that didn't work on the comet mission?

"... during the critical final moments, when nine hydrazine-powered thrusters were supposed to fire to arrest Schiaparelli's descent, the signal disappeared"

[bluedigger]

3. Have they double checked all their metric conversions?

[Ghost Dog]

6. The Beagle problem concerned Imperial measurement

conversion, I think you will find...

[bluedigger]

7. I guess I'm no rocket scientist.

I know a couple, though. I should ask them.

[Ghost Dog]

9. Well, we're still awaiting hard data...

The orbiter looks to be ok:

https://www.theguardian.com/science/across-the-universe/live/2016/oct/19/mars-landing-esa-attempts-to-set-schiaparelli-probe-on-red-planet-live

[tclambert]

12. And that's why you should never measure anything with beagles.

Stick to cubits, I say.

[awoke_in_2003]

15. Did someone say Biggles?

[TexasProgresive]

16. That was putting on the stupid

Why would any involved in science use imperial? That doesn't take rocket science.

[TexasProgresive]

8. If they didn't use any U.S. soft or hardware in the mission that won't be a problem.

When I worked for NASA all of our measurements were metric. Some stupid eggits decided that we were not going to go with metric after all. Now you can't work on a "U.S." automobile unless you have SAE and Metric tools.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

17. Countries that are stubbornly non-metric

non-Metric countries in gray:
United States of America, Burma (Myanmar), Liberia. The US leads the charge back to the 17th century.

[CentralMass]

4. Arm Chair engineer here but why would you utilize "an experimental communications link" on a

project of this nature ?

[longship]

5. Because the lander was experimental.

Schiaparelli lander was a trial, not a mission imperative.

Note: It is extremely difficult to land on Mars. There's not enough atmosphere to help parachutes, and too much mass (gravity) to go without them. Failure and Mars landers correlate very well indeed.

EOS has a bigger lander going to Mars in a couple of years. If they stuck this landing, the future lander might be good as gold. Not sure what they will do now. Hopefully they will learn by this one, which was the whole purpose of Schiaparelli in the first place.

So, this is not necessarily all bad news, except for the loss of the lander.

[CentralMass]

11. Thanks. Hopefully they can analyze what went wrong and correct it for the real event.

[Baclava]

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

Mission control is waiting for the next chance to hear from Schiaparelli, when NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter soars over the landing site in the next hour or two.

http://spaceflightnow.com/2016/10/19/exomars-mission-status-center/

[AngryAmish]

18. I have had it up to here with the Martian's arrogance.

Invade. Mars. Now!

[awoke_in_2003]

19. Has there been

any more news on this?

[Baclava]

20. Lost in space - 'ESA Mars Lander Disappears In Descent To Red Planet'

The lander, sent to investigate Mars for signs of life, stopped transmitting as it neared the planet.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/esa-mars-lander_us_5807ff91e4b0180a36e8b8b7?section=




maybe the greys got it

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

21. But now for the important question, was anyone wearing a tacky bowling shirt?

and if so were they sufficiently ostracized to the satisfaction of the Twitter mutaween?

[area51]

22. Someone cranky lives on Mars.

[Baclava]

23. ExoMars lander may have crashed on Mars after parachute and retrorocket problems

Europe Lost Contact with Mars Lander 1 Minute Before Touchdown


Andrea Acoomazzo, ESA Spacecraft Operations Manager, said that everything had gone to plan for the first five and a half minutes of descent but then events ‘diverged from what was expected’ during ejection of the parachute and heat shield.

The parachute should have released at an altitude of 4,000 feet before thrusters fire to slow the craft down from 150mph to 2.4mph so it can land gently.

But data suggested the parachute had been jettisoned too early, before the probe had slowed sufficiently. Although thrusters did fire to slow the descent, they did not burn for as long as expected which could also have left the craft hurtling towards the ground at high speed.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/10/20/exomars-lander-may-have-crashed-on-mars-after-parachute-and-retr/

[Baclava]

24. Dark Spot in Mars Photo Is Probably Wreckage of European Spacecraft

A dark splotch on Mars most likely marks the remnants of a spacecraft that tried to land there this week, the European Space Agency said on Friday.

Officials at the space agency had not been optimistic about the fate of the Schiaparelli lander but lacked conclusive evidence that it had been destroyed. During its six-minute trip through the Martian atmosphere, the lander at first appeared to be operating well, but it stopped sending data after the ejection of its heat shield.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/22/science/mars-crash-landing-site-explosion.html?_r=0