ExoMars 2016/2020 Data and Analysis (updates)

[Draggendrop Veteran]

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Surface operations

 

Following the touchdown, Schiaparelli will continue transmitting signals for around 15 minutes, before switching to sleep mode to conserve battery power. It is expected to wake up on a programmed schedule as orbiters pass overhead to receive and relay its data back to Earth. These relay slots include 18 provided by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, MRO, eight windows provided by Mars Odyssey and six by Maven. ESA’s Mars Express will conduct a planned series of 14 overflights.

 

During Schiaparelli's operation on the surface, every sol, the lander will have two opportunities to talk to MRO as it flies overhead. The windows via the European Mars Express spacecraft are more limited due to its orbit.

 

Once on the surface, the DREAMS set of science instruments will be activated for operation during at least two martian days. DREAMS activities are also optimized to make the most of the limited energy available, so they are performed in predefined windows rather than operating continuously. Typically, DREAMS will function for six hours every sol (martian day lasting 24 hours and 37 minutes).

 

The most critical engineering data gathered during the descent and landing of Schiaparelli should be transmitted back home within two martian days. The descent images from the lander are expected to be uplinked via MRO on October 20.

 

It will take eight sols to relay the complete set of data acquired during the mission.

 

Hopefully, all the important transmissions will be completed by the time the batteries onboard Schiaparelli go dead around October 23, 2016.

http://www.russianspaceweb.com/exomars2016-edm-landing.html

 

The battery life is better than what I was imagining. There will be plenty of opportunities, orbiter dependent.

 

They really should have had something by now though...tough job to slow it down by 30 mach levels....

[Draggendrop Veteran]

 

 

Fingers still crossed.....we don't want this.......

 

 

 

[Draggendrop Veteran]

 

DSN has TGO data being received...both MRO channels waiting for next comm sight.

 

[Draggendrop Veteran]

 

This mission is an awesome success, with the TGO confidently in orbit with the proper deceleration...I will assume it is a formality to confirm TGO.

 

The lander made it through Mars atmosphere, again outstanding.

 

There appears to be a lot of negative twitters, but the prize was TGO...and it made it.

 

The bandwidth is limited presently, but one can be assured, that when feasible, MRO's camera will be looking the landing site over.

 

 

edit...

 

 

 

 

 

// TGO still being recieved....signal transmission to MRO has begun...coming in range...

 

 

 

It may be awhile for any confirmation, with so much going on.....

[Draggendrop Veteran]

 

This is the big ticket announcement....TGO, which most are sure is in good health and proper orbit. It will take the better part of a year to circularize the orbit anyway...this will be for initial elliptic orbit.

 

[Draggendrop Veteran]

 

 

 

 

 

"taps fingers........"

 

Bingo...we have an orbiter......congratulations ESA....awesome work.......

[Draggendrop Veteran]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are pretty much done for today...hopefully know something tomorrow.......

 

 

which is 4:00 am EDT  or 8:00 am UT

[DocM]

∆ Dr. Wöhrl may well have been correct.

 

It's dead, Jim.

[Draggendrop Veteran]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I would be reasonably sure that the lander made it through the atmosphere, but then a problem with heat shield ejection or inoperative thrusters...

 

I would not be surprised if a 3rd 2020 Red Dragon is assembled for future considerations.....

 

 

 

 

 We have an orbiter......been a good day overall....

[DocM]

FYI, there are a minimum of 3 Red Dragons scheduled - 2018 and at least 2 in 2020. More later.

[Draggendrop Veteran]

6 hours ago, DocM said:

FYI, there are a minimum of 3 Red Dragons scheduled - 2018 and at least 2 in 2020. More later.

this comment....

 

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I would not be surprised if a 3rd 2020 Red Dragon is assembled for future considerations.....

was another wishful thought as a cost effective way to deliver the 2020 rover, in addition to the 2 Red Dragons slated already for 2020 (the 2018 being a demo with payload)....if it would fit through the hatch. 

 

With the demonstrator unlikely surviving, a robust and affordable method will be required to deliver a "very expensive" rover. 

 

// extra data...

 

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Landing monitoring

 

Schiaparelli’s historic descent was being recorded on Earth in near-real time by scientists using the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope, GMRT, located near Pune, India, and operated by the National Center for Radio Astrophysics, part of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. GMRT comprises an array of 30 radio telescopes, each with a dish diameter of 45 meters, and it is one of the world’s largest interferometric arrays.

 

This activity promised to provide extremely important confirmation of the module’s descent and landing, and signifies a major area of international cooperation between ESA, NASA and India.

 

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, installed experimental receiving equipment at the GMRT telescope to help it see not just the wonders of the universe but also track spacecraft like Schiaparelli.

 

The signal acquired by GMRT was expected to be very weak because Schiaparelli was never designed to transmit all the way to Earth. ESA characterized GMRT tracking of Schiaparelli is a 'nice-to-have' experiment to allow to watch the descent in real time. During practice testing during Schiaparelli separation from the TGO orbiter, ESA experts already saw the weak trace of the signal from the lander at GMRT.

 

At the time, only 18 and, later, 16 antennas were available. By the time of the landing ESA was to have 28 of the antennas working, but the orientation of the probe and some other factors could still prevent the reception of the signal.

http://www.russianspaceweb.com/exomars2016-edm-landing.html

 

The GMRT antenna array in India.

 

 

 

Schiaparelli landing site on the global map of Mars relative to previous successful landers. Credit: ESA

 

still a slight chance for...

 

 

The MRO can also scan the landing area when available time allotted.

 

[DocM]

5 minutes ago, Draggendrop said:

>

was another wishful thought as a cost effective way to deliver the 2020 rover, in addition to the 2 Red Dragons slated already for 2020 (the 2018 being a demo with payload)....if it would fit through the hatch. 

>

There have been hints of hatch mods. I get the feeling turning a rod modder loose isn't beyond them.

[Draggendrop Veteran]

3 minutes ago, DocM said:

There have been hints of hatch mods. I get the feeling turning a rod modder loose isn't beyond them.

This would be excellent. Just an opinion, but I believe that Red Dragons are going to "take off like hot cakes" delivering "expensive payloads" at an affordable cost. We have the technology now...why play with silly, complex and expensive sky cranes...... 

[DocM]

Just my opinion, the windows on either side of the hatch can be eliminated - just don't cut those panels. After that there's about 2+ meters of space for a "pizza oven" door. Reinforce the rim, lower the bottom edge and add a KISS sliding barn-style lift like they proposed for ITS. 

[Draggendrop Veteran]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cutting through the double speak....The payload made it through the atmosphere, chute was released, heat shield worked....then they lost it.

 

They repeatedly state that they are still working on the data....refuse to mention a crash.

 

ESA has the lander entry data...but, in my opinion, it appears it is gone. 

 

TGO was the big prize and it made it okay.

[Draggendrop Veteran]

There has been no data received from the planets surface, after several orbital passes.

 

Orbiters still listening, no comm.

 

The lander's thrusters (a few anyway) did fire for a few seconds then....

 

Lander radar was activated.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The panel members are very guarded and not very forthwith data...I am not  very impressed with this approach.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Steven P. Administrators]

The funding isn't secured fully for the 2018 mission afaik? That's probably why they are being "guarded" with regard to what happened, since the very same technology will be used for the rover

[Draggendrop Veteran]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peter B. de Selding is asking some great questions and is persistent.

 

Appears 600MB of data has been captured.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am surprised...the panel is determined to be evasive on releasing data...appears to be a cover for future funding due to increased funding being required for 2020 portion.

 

Livestream cut short for questions.

3 minutes ago, Steven P. said:

The funding isn't secured fully for the 2018 mission afaik? That's probably why they are being "guarded" with regard to what happened, since the very same technology will be used for the rover

I think you are correct on that Steve.    I hope they get the funding as the project is still a great success.

[DocM]

Q: How likely is it that the lander crashed?
A: I don't understand the question

Huh?!? 

Sounds like Mars has a new crater. 

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Just now, DocM said:

Q: How likely is it that the lander crashed?
A: I don't understand the question

Huh?!? 

Sounds like Mars has a new crater. 

Exactly my thoughts. 

[DocM]

 

[DocM]

Cratered....

 

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-37715202

 

For the moment, all Esa has to work with is the relatively large volume of engineering data Schiaparelli managed to transmit back to the "mothership" that dropped it off at Mars - the Trace Gas Orbiter.

This shows that everything was fine as the probe entered the atmosphere. Its heatshield appeared to do the job of slowing the craft, and the parachute opened as expected to further decelerate the robot.

But it is at the end of the parachute phase that the data indicates unusual behaviour.

"We cannot resolve yet under which, let's say, logic that the machine has decided to eject the parachute. But this is definitely far too early compared to our expectations," Andrea Accomazzo, the head of operations for Esa's planetary missions, told BBC News.

Not only is the chute jettisoned earlier than called for in the predicted timeline, but the retrorockets that were due to switch on immediately afterwards are seen to fire for just three or four seconds. They were expected to fire for a good 30 seconds.

In the downlinked telemetry, Schiaparelli then continues transmitting a radio signal for 19 seconds after the apparent thruster shutoff. The eventual loss of signal occurs 50 seconds before Schiaparelli was supposed to be on the surface.

Many scientists here at mission control have taken all this information to mean one thing - that the probe crashed at high speed. It is likely it went into freefall a kilometre or two above the surface.

Officially, though, Esa experts say they cannot at this stage fully interpret what happened until a velocity profile for the probe is properly reconstructed.

[anthdci]

My read (complete speculation) on that was it ejected the parachute early, so it was going to fast. The thrusters didn't fire enough to slow it down so it was still going too fast. It hit the ground hard 50 seconds early so is now in lot's of pieces.

[Jim K Global Moderator]

 

Hopefully this incident will not affect the upcoming rover. Space is hard....you land some and you crater some.  Just gotta learn what went wrong.

[BetaguyGZT]

Bummer.  I've been following along with this story, and it's really unfortunate that things went this way.