Updates ExoMars News & Updates

[jarmonik]

It's kinda sad it didn't work out and that's not good for the 2020 rover mission either. Should it be postponed to 2024 to allow to make another landing test flight in 2020.

Measuring the altitude reliably could be a tough problem. A radar can do that during the final descent but before that it may need to rely on predictions. Deceleration should be easy to measure accurately maybe that could reveal if the descent is too steep but I guess there's not much a lander like that can do about it.

 

[GLS]

Measuring the altitude reliably could be a tough problem. A radar can do that during the final descent but before that it may need to rely on predictions. Deceleration should be easy to measure accurately maybe that could reveal if the descent is too steep but I guess there's not much a lander like that can do about it.

The radar should start being used as soon as they drop the heatshield. It's about that time it went bad. Did the radar lock onto the heatshield? Twice? And they had no sw protections against using that (wrong) data? Unlikely. My bet is on the radar somehow failing, or more likely, some insulation coming loose and flapping in front of it, giving false distance readings and...... splash!

 

[Enjo]

Anyways, humans will have to wait for landing on Mars a bit longer, or we need to send more of them.

 

[Ravenous]

After whining about the dearth of ESA mission technical information, I found something - but on a NASA website!

http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/docs/Bayle_ExoMars_EDM_Overview-Paper.pdf

There's some interesting info in there - figures on some of the components, speeds they were expecting at various points in the landing sequence, when the radar is used (as stated above, after the lower shield is jettisoned) etc. Will take a bit of time to digest but at least it's available.

 

[Notebook]

How critical is the parachute release altitude?
Assuming the speed stabilises when deployed, there is a window between release and rocket firing, too early and you run out of propellant, too late and...

N.

 

[Urwumpe]

Interesting... the radar assembly was not installed fixed, but actually rather loose on the crushable structure to absorb the impact, and was only designed for lower accelerations.

Could the radar have been lost during landing?

 

[Notebook]

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/S...sance_Orbiter_views_Schiaparelli_landing_site

21 October 2016
NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has identified new markings on the surface of the Red Planet that are believed to be related to ESA’s ExoMars Schiaparelli entry, descent and landing technology demonstrator module.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-37731671

 

[Urwumpe]

A new crater on Mars.

 

[Keatah]

Mini-Schiaparelli..

 

[APDAF]

Well it did land... just downwards... at terminal velocity...

 

[Thunder Chicken]

Well it did land... just downwards... at terminal velocity...

I keep looking at the photo of the impact and discarded parachute and am forcibly reminded of the old Road Runner cartoons where Wile E. Coyote's ACME parachute streamers and he makes that impact sound way down on the desert floor at the bottom of the cliff.

 

[Andy44]

"Photos show European Mars probe crashed, may have exploded"

https://www.yahoo.com/news/european-space-agency-says-mars-170708902.html

"Estimates are that Schiaparelli dropped from a height of between 2 and 4 kilometers (1.4-2.4 miles), therefore impacting at a considerable speed, greater than 300 kilometers per hour (186 mph)," the agency said.
It said the large disturbance captured in the NASA photographs may have been caused by the probe's steep crash-landing, which would have sprayed matter around like a blast site on Earth.
"It is also possible that the lander exploded on impact, as its thruster propellant tanks were likely still full," the agency said.

 

[MaverickSawyer]

The curse lives...

 

[dman]

"Photos show European Mars probe crashed, may have exploded"

https://www.yahoo.com/news/european-space-agency-says-mars-170708902.html

Was there an earth shattering KA BOOM....!!

 

[MaverickSawyer]

Was there an earth shattering KA BOOM....!!

Doubtful, given the fact that it was hydrazine fueled, not bipropellant fueled. More of a mix of "splat" and "crunch".

 

[Scav]

Doubtful, given the fact that it was hydrazine fueled, not bipropellant fueled. More of a mix of "splat" and "crunch".

. o O ( What's the last thing that goes through a lander's mind when it hits the windshield of a Mars . . . )

 

[birdmanmike]

Oh, sh**! ??

 

[Thunder Chicken]

Was there an earth shattering KA BOOM....!!

Unlikely, since it was on Mars. It would have had to been going much faster to be felt on Earth. :lol:

 

[MaverickSawyer]

Unlikely, since it was on Mars. It would have had to been going much faster to be felt on Earth. :lol:

xkcd What If? levels fast. :lol:

 

[Thunder Chicken]

xkcd What If? levels fast. :lol:

What fraction of c would Schiaparelli have needed to attain for the gravity waves of the impact on Mars to be felt on Earth? Maybe I should submit this to Randall. "But we're not done, because this probe goes to 11."