ExoMars: Martians did not want our space junk so shot it

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ExoMars

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ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and Schiaparelli Mission (2016)

The first mission of the ExoMars programme, scheduled to arrive at Mars in October 2016, consists of a Trace Gas Orbiter plus an Entry, descent and landing Demonstrator Module, known as Schiaparelli. The main objectives of this mission are to search for evidence of methane and other trace atmospheric gases that could be signatures of active biological or geological processes and to test key technologies in preparation for ESA's contribution to subsequent missions to Mars.

The Orbiter and Schiaparelli were launched together on 14 March 2016 on a Proton rocket and are flying to Mars in a composite configuration. By taking advantage of the positioning of Earth and Mars the cruise phase can be limited to about 7 months, with the pair arriving at Mars in October.

Three days before reaching the atmosphere of Mars, on 16 October, Schiaparelli was ejected from the Orbiter towards the Red Planet. Schiaparelli will then coast towards its destination, enter the Martian atmosphere at 21 000 km/h, decelerate using aerobraking and a parachute, and then brake with the aid of a thruster system before landing on the surface of the planet.

From its coasting to Mars until its landing, Schiaparelli will communicate with the Orbiter. Once on the surface, the communications of Schiaparelli will be supported from Mars Express and from a NASA Relay Orbiter. The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter will be inserted into an elliptical orbit around Mars and then sweep through the atmosphere to finally settle into a circular, approximately 400-km altitude orbit ready to conduct its scientific mission.

Trace Gas Orbiter - Searching for signature gases in the Martian atmosphere
Do Martians fart

The Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) spacecraft is designed by ESA, while Roscosmos provides the launch vehicle, a Proton rocket. A scientific payload with instruments from Russia and Europe is accommodated on the TGO to achieve its scientific objectives. The TGO will perform detailed, remote observations of the Martian atmosphere, searching for evidence of gases of possible biological importance, such as methane and its degradation products. The instruments on the orbiter will carry out a variety of measurements to investigate the location and nature of sources that produce these gases. The scientific mission is expected to begin in March 2018 and will run for almost two years. The Trace Gas Orbiter will also be used to relay data for the 2020 rover mission of the ExoMars programme until the end of 2022.

Schiaparelli: an entry, descent and landing demonstrator module
Testing critical technology for future missions

Schiaparelli, the ExoMars Entry, descent and landing Demonstrator Module (EDM) will provide Europe with the technology for landing on the surface of Mars with a controlled landing orientation and touchdown velocity. The design of Schiaparelli maximises the use of technologies already in development within the ExoMars programme. These technologies include: special material for thermal protection, a parachute system, a radar Doppler altimeter system, and a final braking system controlled by liquid propulsion.

Schiaparelli is expected to survive on the surface of Mars for a short time by using the excess energy capacity of its batteries. The science possibilities of Schiaparelli are limited by the absence of long-term power and the fixed amount of space and resources that can be accommodated within the module; however, a set of scientific sensors are included to perform limited, but useful, surface science.

Keeping in touch far from home

After launch and throughout the cruise phase, the spacecraft unit made up of the Trace Gas Orbiter and Schiaparelli is operated by ESA through the space communications network of ESA's European Space Operations Centre (ESOC).

After separation, the orbiter will monitor the UHF transmission from Schiaparelli from its coasting to Mars until its landing. ESA's Mars Express and a NASA Relay Orbiter will act as a data relay for Schiaparelli during its surface operations. Furthermore, ground-based communication arrays will also track the UHF signal during the entry, descent and landing phases.

ESA will be in full control of the orbiter during all phases of its mission, including insertion into Mars orbit, orbit control, aerobraking, science operations and Mars communications operations.

Link to Full Article - Photos:

http://exploration.esa.int/mars/46124-mission-overview/

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ExoMars mission:

Tense moments as European Space Agency hopes to put Schiaparelli lander on Mars

An experimental probe is about to land on Mars – scientists hope

We might be about to find out if there is life on Mars

If the Schiaparelli lander successfully finds its way to the surface it will be the second European craft to do so. But that will just be the beginning of its mission.

The European Space Agency’s new mission recalls the landing of the Beagle 2 lander on the planet in 2003. That made its way to the surface, but it failed to properly open when it did so – leading scientists to lose contact with it.

Nasa's most stunning pictures of space

Once it does land, and if everything goes to plan, the lander will begin its work on the ExoMars mission. That intends to help establish whether or not there is life on the planet, and if the strange methane found on the surface comes from aliens or from something more everyday.

Schiaparelli will take images of Mars and conduct scientific measurements on the surface, but its main purpose is to test technology for a future European Mars rover. ESA's last attempted Mars landing with the Beagle 2 rover failed in 2003.

Schiaparelli is part of the ExoMars program, a joint venture between ESA and Russia's Roscosmos. Its mother ship, the Trace Gas Orbiter, is to analyze methane and other gases in the atmosphere.

Scientists will go through a tense time as they watch the lander makes its way to the red planets surface – and wait to find out whether it’s done so without echoing the fate of the Beagle 2.

Mission controllers hope Schiaparelli, part of an ambitious joint European and Russian mission to search for evidence of life on Mars, will fare better but stress that landing on the planet is notoriously tricky.

British space scientist Dr Manish Patel, from the Open University, a member of the team that will be analysing data from the spacecraft, said: "It's certainly a tense time. I'm looking forward to an interesting night's sleep, or lack of it.

"The classic problem with Mars is its thin atmosphere. If you have a thick atmosphere, it naturally slows you down, and if there's no atmosphere, it's easy. But Mars has a very thin atmosphere that slows you down a bit, but can still cause a lot of problems. It varies a lot; you get waves and ripples which are unpredictable.

"Dust impacting on the heat shield can also be a hazard, but I'm told that's one that can be compensated for."

Schiaparelli hitched a ride to Mars on the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) spacecraft, crossing a distance of 500 million km (310 million miles) on its seven-month journey from Earth.

The probe parted company with its mothership on Sunday. It is due to enter the Martian atmosphere at around 3.42pm on Wednesday, travelling at roughly 21,000 km/h (13,050 mph).

Although it carries some instruments, Schiaparelli's main job will be to test out the landing system for a future ExoMars rover mission due to be launched in 2020.

Initially slowed by the friction on its heat shield, the probe will deploy its parachute at altitude of about 11 km (6.8 miles). As it nears the ground, three clusters of retro rockets will fire, slowing the craft's speed to less than 7km/h (4.3 mph) two metres (6.5ft) from the surface. The rockets will then switch off, allowing the probe to drop the rest of the way.

A special crushable structure built into the spacecraft will cushion against the final shock.

During the descent Schiaparelli will take pictures of the approaching Martian terrain.

The landing site is Meridiani Planum, a flat region that interests scientists because it contains an ancient layer of haematite. On Earth, the iron oxide mineral almost always forms in a watery environment.

Schiaparelli will spend up to about four days gathering weather data before its batteries run out.

While the landing is taking place, TGO will settle itself in orbit around Mars.

Starting next year, the orbiter will sniff the Martian atmosphere for traces of methane and help scientists decide if it has a geological or biological origin. On Earth, methane is chiefly produced by billions of bacterial organisms, many of which live in the guts of animals such as cows.

ExoMars Rover will deploy a six-wheeled mobile laboratory to the surface of Mars to drill into the soil and look for definitive signs of past or present life.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style ... 69131.html

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Signal problems unsure if it landed safely

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Fears grow for European Schiaparelli Mars lander

There are growing fears a European probe that attempted to land on Mars on Wednesday has been lost

Tracking of the Schiaparelli robot's radio signals was dropped less than a minute before it was expected to touch down on the Red Planet's surface.

Satellites at Mars have attempted to shed light on the probe's status, so far without success.

One American satellite even called out to Schiaparelli to try to get it to respond.

The fear will be that the robot has crashed and been destroyed. The European Space Agency, however, is a long way from formally calling that outcome.

Its engineers will be running through "fault trees" seeking to figure out why communication was lost and what they can do next to retrieve the situation.

This approach could well last several days.

At least some good news: 'We have two satellites around Mars'

One key insight will come from Schiaparelli's "mothership" - the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO).

As Schiaparelli was heading down to the surface, the TGO was putting itself in a parking ellipse around Mars. But it was also receiving telemetry from the descending robot.

That telemetry could now hold vital clues as to what happened in the crucial minute before the expected touchdown.

Esa experts and those from the industries that built Schiaparelli will examine the downlinked data overnight.

They will hold a press conference at

10:00 local time (09:00 BST; 08:00 GMT) on Thursday

Paolo Ferri, the head of mission operations here at Esa's control centre in Darmstadt, Germany, told reporters: "People will spend the night looking at this data. I'm pretty confident that this telemetry will tell us what action was interrupted when we lost the communications.

I would say we have a very good chance tomorrow morning to either know that the lander is lost or to know what attempts we can make to recover it."

If the mood here surrounding Schiaparelli's fate is sombre, there is at least good cheer in the performance of the TGO in getting into its right orbit above Mars.

This satellite is really the key part of the mission formally called ExoMars 2016 - a joint endeavour with the Russian space agency (Roscosmos). The TGO is going to spend the coming years studying the behaviour of gases such as methane, water vapour and nitrogen dioxide in the Red Planet's atmosphere.

Although present in only small amounts, these components - methane in particular - hold clues about Mars' current state of activity. They may even hint at the existence of life on the planet today.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-37707776

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That is very sad. How unfortunate.

[Anthea]

ExoMars orbiter reaches Mars orbit while lander situation under assessment

The Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) of ESA's ExoMars 2016 has successfully performed the long 139-minute burn required to be captured by Mars and entered an elliptical orbit around the Red Planet, while contact has not yet been confirmed with the mission's test lander from the surface.

The Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) of ESA's ExoMars 2016 has successfully performed the long 139-minute burn required to be captured by Mars and entered an elliptical orbit around the Red Planet, while contact has not yet been confirmed with the mission's test lander from the surface.

TGO's Mars orbit Insertion burn lasted from 13:05 to 15:24 GMT on 19 October, reducing the spacecraft's speed and direction by more than 1.5 km/s. The TGO is now on its planned orbit around Mars. European Space Agency teams at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany, continue to monitor the good health of their second orbiter around Mars, which joins the 13-year old Mars Express.

The ESOC teams are trying to confirm contact with the Entry, Descent & Landing Demonstrator Module (EDM), Schiaparelli, which entered the Martian atmosphere some 107 minutes after TGO started its own orbit insertion manoeuvre.

The 577-kg EDM was released by the TGO at 14:42 GMT on 16 October. Schiaparelli was programmed to autonomously perform an automated landing sequence, with parachute deployment and front heat shield release between 11 and 7 km, followed by a retrorocket braking starting at 1100 m from the ground, and a final fall from a height of 2 m protected by a crushable structure.

Prior to atmospheric entry at 14:42 GMT, contact via the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT), the world's largest interferometric array, located near Pune, India, was established just after it began transmitting a beacon signal 75 minutes before reaching the upper layers of the Martian atmosphere. However, the signal was lost some time prior to landing.

A series of windows have been programmed to listen for signals coming from the lander via ESA'S Mars Express and NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and Mars Atmosphere & Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) probes. The Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) also has listening slots.

If Schiaparelli reached the surface safely, its batteries should be able to support operations for three to ten days, offering multiple opportunities to re-establish a communication link.

TGO is equipped with a suite of science instruments in order to study the Martian environment from orbit. Although mostly a technology demonstrator, Schiaparelli is also carrying a small science payload to perform some observations from ground.

ExoMars 2016 is the first part of a two-fold international endeavour conducted by ESA in cooperation with Roskosmos in Russia that will also encompass the ExoMars 2020 mission. Due in 2020, the second ExoMars mission will include a Russian lander and a European rover, which will drill down to 2 m underground to look for pristine organic material.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2 ... 111111.htm

[Anthea]

That is very sad. How unfortunate.

It is sad after all the hard work that so many people have put into this and it will set back Martian exploration by a few years

[Anthea]

ExoMars Lander Slammed Into Mars At Over 186 MPH

RIP Schiaparelli
European Mars Lander's Crash Site Seen By NASA Probe

Europe's ExoMars lander apparently crashed on the Red Planet, and an orbiting NASA spacecraft has spotted its grave, European Space Agency (ESA) officials said.

The lander, named Schiaparelli, stopped communicating with mission control about 1 minute before its planned touchdown on Mars Wednesday morning (Oct. 19). Newly released photos of the landing site by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) seem to confirm what ExoMars team members had suspected — that Schiaparelli died a violent death.

The photos show a bright feature consistent with the lander's 39-foot-wide (12 meters) parachute, as well as a 50-by-130-foot (15 by 40 m) dark patch likely created by the lander's impact, ESA officials said.

Link to EXCITING Full Article - Photo - Videos:

http://www.space.com/34472-exomars-mars ... hotos.html

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Images reveal crashed Mars lander



The European Space Agency has tried hard to avoid using the words "crash" or "failure" about its attempted Mars landing but the fate of the spacecraft is cruelly exposed in new pictures.

The Schiaparelli lander is seen in greater detail than ever before, lying on the Martian surface.

It is well within its intended landing zone but obviously unable to function.

The images, gathered by Nasa, could provide important new clues about what went wrong.

They show a dark patch around the capsule - a possible hint that a fuel tank exploded - and the indication is that the impact gouged out a crater 50cm deep.

Last week's landing - a joint Esa-Russian Space Agency (Roscosmos) endeavour - was billed as a "technology demonstrator" to pave the way for a far bigger venture in 2020 with a sophisticated rover to hunt for clues about life.

The loss raises difficult questions about the risks involved in that follow-on mission and whether Esa's member governments will be too nervous to pledge the funds needed to mount it.

The Schiaparelli spacecraft was meant to touch down last week using a combination of a heat-shield and a parachute to slow its fall and retro-rockets to lower it to the surface.



Instead communications were lost during what should have been the final minute of the descent and it is estimated that the spacecraft hit the ground at about 300kph.

It was quickly established that the parachute and back cover were released earlier than they should have been, according to a pre-programmed sequence of tasks.

It is also known that the retro-rockets, which should have fired for 30 seconds, only operated for three or four seconds, and the lander probably fell from a height of 2-4km.

In the aftermath of the attempt, Esa's Director-General, Jan Woerner, claimed that the mission was a success because the spacecraft transmitted data for five of the six minutes of its descent, providing useful information and proving that key stages of the operation had worked well.

He also highlighted that the lander's mother ship, known as the Trace Gas Orbiter, had been successfully placed in an orbit that would allow it to sniff the Martian atmosphere for hints of methane.

Soon after the mission, Nasa's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter gathered pictures of the landing zone which revealed the presence of two new dots in the Martian landscape - a dark one for the spacecraft and a white one for the parachute.

Now the same spacecraft has used its more powerful HiRise camera - with a resolution of 30cm per pixel - to focus on the landing zone and produce the images released today.

In a bitter irony, it was the same US orbiter that managed to spot Europe's earlier attempt at a Mars landing, with the Beagle-2 mission in 2003.

Those images showed how the tiny craft had made it to the surface in one piece but then failed to fully open its solar panels which meant that it could not communicate or survive.



Link to Article - Photos - Video:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-37788444