ExoMars 2016/2020 Data and Analysis (updates)

[DocM]

I think it was SpaceX's Gwynne Shotwell who quipped, 'if we aren't making craters we aren't trying hard enough.'

[FloatingFatMan]

This is why robots are poor explorers. As soon as something unexpected happens, boom.  End of mission.

 

We need people up there, stat!

 

[DocM]

Soon, Grasshopper, soon

[Jim K Global Moderator]

8 minutes ago, DocM said:

Soon, Grasshopper, soon

...soon, Red Dragon, soon 

 

?

[DocM]

Just now, jjkusaf said:

...soon, Red Dragon, soon 

 

?

 

Among other things....

[Draggendrop Veteran]

bits and bytes...

 

 

 

 

TGO is apparently in the proper orbit and healthy. This is a major goal achieved.

 

 

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20 October 2016

Essential data from the ExoMars Schiaparelli lander sent to its mothership Trace Gas Orbiter during the module’s descent to the Red Planet’s surface yesterday has been downlinked to Earth and is currently being analysed by experts.

 

Early indications from both the radio signals captured by the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT), an experimental telescope array located near Pune, India, and from orbit by ESA’s Mars Express, suggested the module had successfully completed most steps of its 6-minute descent through the martian atmosphere. This included the deceleration through the atmosphere, and the parachute and heat shield deployment, for example.

 

But the signals recorded by both Pune and Mars Express stopped shortly before the module was expected to touchdown on the surface.

 

Discrepancies between the two data sets are being analysed by experts at ESA’s space operations centre in Darmstadt, Germany.

 

The detailed telemetry recorded by the Trace Gas Orbiter was needed to better understand the situation. At the same time as Schiaparelli’s descent, the orbiter was performing a crucial ‘Mars Orbit Insertion’ manoeuvre – which it completed successfully. These important data were recorded from Schiaparelli and beamed back to Earth in the early hours of Thursday morning.

 

The data have been partially analysed and confirm that the entry and descent stages occurred as expected, with events diverging from what was expected after the ejection of the back heat shield and parachute. This ejection itself appears to have occurred earlier than expected, but analysis is not yet complete.

 

The thrusters were confirmed to have been briefly activated although it seems likely that they switched off sooner than expected, at an altitude that is still to be determined.

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/ExoMars/Schiaparelli_descent_data_decoding_underway

 

 

 

credit ESA

 

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

 

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After its release Sunday from a carrier aboard Europe’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, which flew to Mars in tandem with the lander, Schiaparelli made an automated approach to the red planet and glided into the Martian atmosphere Wednesday at a velocity of 13,000 mph (21,000 kilometers per hour) for a fast-paced, six-minute descent sequence.

 

The entry profile involved heat protection from cork and resin tiles, a European-built 39-foot-diameter (12 meter) supersonic parachute, and nine rocket thrusters mounted around the circumference of Schiaparelli in clusters of three.

 

Something unexpected happened near the end of the lander’s descent under the parachute, when Schiaparelli’s back shell was timed to jettison and the probe’s thrusters were programmed to ignite.

 

“All the EDM (Entry, Descent and Landing Demonstrator Module) has behaved according to our expectation up to a certain point,” said Andrea Accomazzo, head of the solar and planetary missions division at the European Space Operations Center in Darmstadt, Germany.

 

“There’s a point where the parachute was released, and this is where the data we preliminarily analyzed from the EDM do not match, exactly, our expectations, and this is what we have to understand,” Accomazzo said.

 

Officials said the separation parachute and back shell apparently occurred earlier than expected, and the lander deviated from the flight plan around the same time.

 

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The compact space probe was about the size of a Smart car, measuring less than 6 feet (1.8 meters) tall and around 5 feet (1.65 meters) wide after flying free of its heat shield.

 

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The robotic probe sent its last signal around 50 seconds before the expected landing time, Accomazzo said Thursday, and telemetry from Schiaparelli being analyzed by experts on the ground appears to show the spacecraft activated its radar and ignited its landing rockets, at least for three or four seconds.

 

“They did fire,” Accomazzo told reporters in a press briefing Thursday. “Definitely, we saw them fire for a few seconds, for a time much shorter than what we were expecting.”

 

Stressing that engineers are still at a preliminary stage decoding the telemetry from Schiaparelli, Accomazzo said it was not clear whether all nine of the engines ignited or the altitude at which the thrusters cut off.

 

The thrusters should have fired for 30 seconds to slow the lander’s velocity from more than 120 mph (200 kilometers per hour) to a walking pace around 6 feet (2 meters) above the Martian surface. At that point, the engines were supposed to shut down, and the lander was to fall to the ground cushioned by a crushable carbon-fiber shell.

 

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“Given the amount of data that we will have acquired through Schiaparelli yesterday, and given that the whole point of Schiaparelli was to acquire practical experience, the data feeds directly into the 2020 mission,” Parker said. “All the key pieces of hardware were activated and provided data or functioned as expected, so the experience feeds into the next mission exactly as planned.”

 

But ESA will have to present their case at a meeting of the agency’s member states in December when officials ask European governments for around $330 million (300 million euros) to make up for a shortfall in funding for the construction of the ExoMars 2020 rover.

 

A review next week will determine exactly how much funding ESA needs to complete ExoMars, Woerner said.

http://spaceflightnow.com/2016/10/20/last-data-from-schiaparelli-mars-lander-hold-clues-to-what-went-wrong/

 

About 1.4 billion U.S. dollars had been budgeted by the agency....and still short with the extension to 2020 for the rover and landing platform.

 

Overall....TGO success.....Schiaparelli, high velocity impact testing....

 

//  pssst....check out your local Red Dragon dealer....for 2020

 

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Schiaparelli's wreckage found!

 

 

 

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ESA promised to continue attempts to communicate with the lander in the coming days using available orbiters and to make an effort to locate the lander or its remnants on the surface of Mars.

 

Sure enough, by October 21, NASA's sharp-eyed Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, MRO, imaged the likely wreckage of Schiaparelli on the surface of Mars almost exactly at the center of the planned landing ellipse.

 

 

 

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Below the main image of the landing ellipse area are a pair of before-and-after images, taken by the Context Camera, CTX camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on 29 May 2016 (left) and 20 October 2016 (right), respectively at a resolution of six meters per pixel. The Oct. 20 image revealed two new features appearing following the arrival of the Schiaparelli test lander module on the martian surface on October 19. One of the features is bright and can be associated with the 12-m diameter parachute used in the second stage of Schiaparelli’s descent, after the initial heat shield entry.

 

The parachute and the associated back shield were released from Schiaparelli prior to the final phase, during which its nine thrusters should have slowed it to a standstill just above the surface. The other new feature is a fuzzy dark patch roughly 15 by 40 meters in size and about one kilometer north of the parachute. This is interpreted as arising from the impact of the Schiaparelli module itself following a much longer free fall than planned, after the thrusters were switched off prematurely.

 

The landing ellipse is 100 kilometers and 15 kilometers, and is centered on 2 degrees south in latitude and 353 degrees east longitude, in the Meridiani Planum region of Mars, close to the planet's equator. The image measures about 100 km; north is up. The dark spot on the image, associated with the Schiaparelli module, is located approximately 5.4 kilometers west of the center of the landing ellipse.

 

More detailed, high-resolution photos of the location were expected to be obtained by MRO next week, using its HiRISE camera, the most powerful imaging instrument ever orbiting Mars.

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

 

 

It's official....Schiaparelli did a "Super Dave".....and Fuji approved...

 

 

Overall, still a great success with TGO's orbital insertion. Lot's of good science to come.

 

[BetaguyGZT]

Yep, and we can clearly see the Heat Shield at the bottom of the frame. It looks better than the Lander does ...

 

Another thud.  Bummer.

[+Mirumir Subscriber¹]

On 10/20/2016 at 11:14 AM, Draggendrop said:

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

I wonder what the time lag is between sending and receiving the data from the lander.

 

Are they still receiving the data sent directly by the lander? Or, has the orbiter accumulated all of the lander's data? And is it now sending it to Earth in intervals?

[+Mirumir Subscriber¹]

On 10/19/2016 at 9:18 PM, Draggendrop said:

It will take the better part of a year to circularize the orbit anyway...this will be for initial elliptic orbit.

 

I've heard it's gonna spend the next six months slowing down  

[Draggendrop Veteran]

18 hours ago, Mirumir said:

I wonder what the time lag is between sending and receiving the data from the lander.

 

Are they still receiving the data sent directly by the lander? Or, has the orbiter accumulated all of the lander's data? And is it now sending it to Earth in intervals?

Good questions....

 

Round trip comm time is approximately 20 minutes. One can view the communications via this link...

https://eyes.nasa.gov/dsn/dsn.html

 

As the lander was entering the atmosphere, it was being experimentally monitored by a comm dish GMRT in India, which worked well, and was monitored by TGO, Mars Express and MRO via UHF communications.

 

All data, up to the point of the 3 second thruster firing, were captured, roughly 600MB, and relayed back to Earth by TGO. Mars Express monitored the carrier as did MRO (in open loop...carrier doppler).

 

There was no further communications after several passes and once MRO did a surface imaging, we know it did not make it.

 

18 hours ago, Mirumir said:

I've heard it's gonna spend the next six months slowing down  

The parameters of the orbital corrections have changed since the ExoMars rover will now be in 2020 instead of 2018.

 

In January 2017, the inclination should be complete at 74 degrees to the Martian equator. The orbital eccentricity will begin reduction in March 2017 to circularize to one orbit during one sol (2 Earth days) and once stabilized, will be adjusted by aerobraking, to an orbit every 2 hours...which is the designed mode for all experiments. This will all be accomplished by March 2018. Half way through July and August, TGO will hibernate due to it's location behind the Sun from us on Earth.

 

An analogy would be the ISS orbital parameters of 51.6 degrees and an orbit in 92 minutes. The path traced out on the earth can be envisioned as slightly larger coverage towards the poles for TGO. We will have some great science from TGO.

 

Hope this answers some of your questions....

[DocM]

On 10/20/2016 at 7:02 PM, jjkusaf said:

Me (DocM): eternal quote of the crappy Neowin editor kind please kill this post ☠

http://www.nature.com/news/computing-glitch-may-have-doomed-mars-lander-1.20861

[Draggendrop Veteran]

 

 

Larger image...

 

 

Schiaparelli Impact Site on Mars Viewed From Orbit

 

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This Oct. 25 observation shows three locations where hardware reached the ground, all within about 0.9 mile (1.5 kilometer) of each other, as expected. The annotated version includes insets with six-fold enlargement of each of those three areas. Brightness is adjusted separately for each inset to best show the details of that part of the scene. North is about 7 degrees counterclockwise from straight up. The scale bars are in meters.

 

At lower left is the parachute, adjacent to the back shell, which was its attachment point on the spacecraft. The parachute is much brighter than the Martian surface in this region. The smaller circular feature just south of the bright parachute is about the same size and shape as the back shell, (diameter of 7.9 feet or 2.4 meters).

 

At upper right are several bright features surrounded by dark radial impact patterns, located about where the heat shield was expected to impact. The bright spots may be part of the heat shield, such as insulation material, or gleaming reflections of the afternoon sunlight.

 

According to the ExoMars project, which received data from the spacecraft during its descent through the atmosphere, the heat shield separated as planned, the parachute deployed as planned but was released (with back shell) prematurely, and the lander hit the ground at a velocity of more than 180 miles per hour (more than 300 kilometers per hour).

 

At mid-upper left are markings left by the lander's impact. The dark, approximately circular feature is about 7.9 feet (2.4 meters) in diameter, about the size of a shallow crater expected from impact into dry soil of an object with the lander's mass -- about 660 pounds (300 kilograms) -- and calculated velocity. The resulting crater is estimated to be about a foot and a half (half a meter) deep.

 

This first HiRISE observation does not show topography indicating the presence of a crater. Stereo information from combining this observation with a future one may provide a way to check. Surrounding the dark spot are dark radial patterns expected from an impact event. The dark curving line to the northeast of the dark spot is unusual for a typical impact event and not yet explained. Surrounding the dark spot are several relatively bright pixels or clusters of pixels.

 

They could be image noise or real features, perhaps fragments of the lander. A later image is expected to confirm whether these spots are image noise or actual surface features.

http://spaceref.com/mars/schiaparelli-impact-site-on-mars-viewed-from-orbit.html

 

 

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Russian antennas receive signals from the device TGO mission # ExoMars -http: // the www. roscosmos.ru/22809/ .

 

Roskosmos and the Space Research Institute. RUSSIAN ANTENNA received signal TGO

 

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27.10.2016 16:35
Orbiter Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) mission "exomars 2016" a week is on the highly elliptical orbit around Mars. The signal from the device is received at the station Deep Space Communication of the European Space Agency (ESTRACK system) and NASA (DSN system), as well as the first time the Russian receiving antennas in the Bear Lake and Kalyazin.
 
The first signal from the device was received more October 16, 2016, during the separation TGO and Schiaparelli modules ( "Schiaparelli"). On the day of entry into orbit on October 19 signal was recorded on both antennas before TGO braking maneuver, although the conditions for the reception were not very favorable.
 
As explained Anton Ledkov, researcher at the Department of ballistics IKI, for antennas located in the northern hemisphere of Mars is very close to the horizon - the angle at which the planet is visible, no more 7-8 degrees, so that the signal must be taken through a very extended layer atmosphere. Despite this, the antenna in the Bear Lake was able to receive the signal, which is transmitted via highly directional antennas.
 
The second time the signal took the two stations immediately after the device out of the radio shadow of Mars, at a time close to the theoretical and practical at the same time with European and American.
 
Two 64-meter antenna in Kalyazin and Bear Oziory owned OKB MEI (as part of RCS). They were built in 1970-80 and is now being modernized. They will form the basis of the Russian complex reception of scientific information, which is created in Russia in the framework of the "exomars" project combined ground segment.
 
"In fact, the first time it was for" exomars "project to create a truly common ground segment, which brings together European, Russian and American station reception, the Indian radio telescope, the European mission control center in Darmstadt and terrestrial scientific ESA systems (ESAC, Madrid) and Russia ( Space research Institute, Moscow), - said Vladimir Nazarov, head of the department of terrestrial scientific complexes IKI. - We also create a combined archive of the results with equal access rights for both partners, Russia and ESA. "
 
The project "exomars" - a joint project of Roskosmos and the European Space Agency's Mars Exploration, its surface, atmosphere and climate from orbit and on the surface of the planet. It will open a new phase of space exploration for Europe and Russia.

http://www.roscosmos.ru/22809/

 

[Jim K Global Moderator]

Schiaparelli Crash in color.

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New high-resolution images taken by a NASA orbiter show parts of the ExoMars Schiaparelli module and its landing site in colour on the Red Planet.

 

Schiaparelli arrived in the Meridiani Planum region on Mars on 19 October, while its mothership began orbiting the planet. The Trace Gas orbiter will make its first science observations during two of its highly elliptical circuits around Mars – corresponding to eight days – starting on 20 November, including taking its first images of the planet since arriving.

 

The new image of Schiaparelli and its hardware components was taken by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, or MRO, on 1 November. The main impact site is now captured in the central portion of the swath that is imaged by the high-resolution camera through three filters, enabling a colour image to be constructed.

 

In addition, the image of 1 November was taken looking slightly to the west, while the earlier image was looking to the east, providing a contrasting viewing geometry.

 

Indeed, the latest image set sheds new light on some of the details that could only be speculated from the first look last week.

 

For example, a number of the bright white spots around the dark region interpreted as the impact site are confirmed as real objects – they are not likely to be imaging ‘noise’ – and therefore are most likely fragments of Schiaparelli.

 

Interestingly, a bright feature can just be made out in the place where the dark crater was identified in last week’s image. This may be associated with the module, but the images so far are not conclusive.

 

A bright fuzzy patch revealed in the colour image alongside the dark streaks to the west of the crater could be surface material disturbed in the impact or from a subsequent explosion or explosive decompression of the module’s fuel tanks, for example.

 

About 0.9 km to the south, the parachute and rear heatshield have also now been imaged in colour. In the time that has elapsed since the last image was taken on 25 October, the outline of the parachute has changed. The most logical explanation is that it has been shifted in the wind, in this case slightly to the west. This phenomenon was also observed by MRO in images of the parachute used by NASA’s Curiosity rover.

 

A stereo reconstruction of this image in the future will also help to confirm the orientation of the rear heatshield. The pattern of bright and dark patches suggest it is sitting such that we see the outside of the heatshield and the signature of the way in which the external layer of insulation has burned away in some parts and not others – as expected.

 

Finally, the front heatshield has been imaged again in black and white – its location falls outside of the colour region imaged by MRO – and shows no changes. Because of the different viewing geometry between the two image sets, this confirms that the bright spots are not specular reflections, and must therefore be related to the intrinsic brightness of the object. That is, it is most likely the bright multilayer thermal insulation that covers the inside of the front heatshield, as suggested last week.

 

Source: ESA

[Draggendrop Veteran]

 

 

 

EXOMARS 2020 SURFACE PLATFORM

 

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The ExoMars 2020 mission will have two science elements that land on Mars: a rover and a surface platform.

 

The rover will leave the surface platform and travel across the surface of Mars to search for signs of well-preserved organic material, particularly from the early period of the planet. The surface platform, which is the responsibility of Roscosmos and the Space Research Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences (IKI), will remain stationary and will investigate the surface environment at the landing site. The set of sensors and instruments on the surface platform will operate during its nominal mission lifetime of one Earth year.

The main science priorities for the surface platform are context imaging of the landing site, long-term climate monitoring, and atmospheric investigations.

Sensors and instruments on the surface platform will also be used to study the subsurface water distribution at the landing site, to investigate the exchange of volatiles between the atmosphere and the surface, to monitor the radiation environment and compare it with measurements made with the radiation dosimeter on the FREND instrument (on the ExoMars 2016 Trace Gas Orbiter), and to carry out geophysical investigations of the planet’s internal structure.

Following a call to the European scientific community issued in March 2015, nine proposals were received and assessed. In November 2015, ESA approved the selection of six European elements. This includes two European-led instruments, and four sensor packages to be included in two Russian-led instruments.

more at the link... (Table with experiments involved)

http://exploration.esa.int/mars/56933-exomars-2020-surface-platform/

 

 

[BetaguyGZT]

Almost looks like the chute is snagged on the heat shield. Ouchies ... that'll doom any mission immediately. Wonder how that happened?

[+Mirumir Subscriber¹]

 

This gotta be one of the most expensive unintentional crash tests in history.

[BetaguyGZT]

I cringed when I first saw that a week or so ago. Ugh.  

[Draggendrop Veteran]

 

 

 

 

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Scientific instruments of the spacecraft mission TGO # ExoMars will conduct the first scientific measurements in the next week -http: // www. roscosmos.ru/22938/ .

 

 

ESA's New Mars Orbiter Prepares For Science

 

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18 November 2016

The ExoMars orbiter is preparing to make its first scientific observations at Mars during two orbits of the planet starting next week.

 

The Trace Gas Orbiter, or TGO, a joint endeavour between ESA and Roscosmos, arrived at Mars on 19 October. It entered orbit, as planned, on a highly elliptical path that takes it from between 230 and 310 km above the surface to around 98 000 km every 4.2 days.

 

The main science mission will only begin once it reaches a near-circular orbit about 400 km above the planet’s surface after a year of ‘aerobraking’ – using the atmosphere to gradually brake and change its orbit. Full science operations are expected to begin by March 2018.

 

But next week provides the science teams with a chance to calibrate their instruments and make the first test observations now the spacecraft is actually at Mars.

 

In fact, the neutron detector has been on for much of TGO’s cruise to Mars and is currently collecting data to continue calibrating the background flux and checking that nothing changed after the Schiaparelli module detached from the spacecraft.

 

It will measure the flow of neutrons from the martian surface, created by the impact of cosmic rays. The way in which they are emitted and their speed on arriving at TGO will tell scientists about the composition of the surface layer.

 

In particular, because even small quantities of hydrogen can cause a change in the neutron speed, the sensor will be able to seek out locations where ice or water may exist, within the planet’s top 1–2 m.

 

The orbiter’s other three instruments have a number of test observations scheduled during 20–28 November.

more at the link...

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/ExoMars/ESA_s_new_Mars_orbiter_prepares_for_first_science

 

 

Exomars 2016. TGO UNIT PREPARES FOR THE FIRST SCIENTIFIC MEASUREMENTS

 

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18.11.2016 14:17
The scientific instruments on board the spacecraft Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO, the mission "exomars-2016") will conduct the first scientific measurement of next week.
 
The device went into orbit around Mars October 19, 2016. After completing a planned braking maneuver with the base engine, he switched to high-elliptical orbit with a period of 4.2 days. In its periapsis distance from the surface of Mars is 230-300 km, apocenter - almost 98 000 km.
 
The main science mission begins when the TGO will be released into a working orbit. It will be close to circular and low enough with height of about 400 km above the surface. This will occur only a year after the start of braking via the atmosphere, presumably by March 2018.
 
But now, when the machine is in Mars research teams were able to carry out the calibration of instruments and carry out the first surveillance.
 
Russian-European scientific payload on board TGO consists of four devices. One of the fixtures - Russian neutron detector Frendo has conducted scientific observations: first, during the flight from Earth to Mars, and then after the separation module "Schiaparelli" and TGO reaching orbit again was included October 31, 2016. Now Frendo calibration in flight to study the background radiation in orbit around Mars.
 
Future task Frendo is to measure the neutron flux from the surface of the planet, who are born as a result of interaction with the cosmic-ray particles. The characteristics of neutron flux can be judged on the composition of the soil and, in particular, the presence of hydrogen in it. Since hydrogen is a part of the water molecule, according to Freund will be judged on how distributed water ice in the Martian soil at a depth of 1-2 m. The first guidance device on Mars will be held as early as next week.
 
Three other instrument on board TGO will conduct the first screening measurements in orbit around the planet 20-28 of November.
 
Two spectrometric complex, Russia's ACS (ACS) and the European the NOMAD, will investigate the composition of the Martian atmosphere. Their main task - to measure the concentration of its minor components, ie gases that are present in very small or "trace" concentrations. Of particular interest is methane, which on Earth is mainly biogenic or hydrothermal origin.
 
Both devices operate in several modes. The first - "solar eclipses" mode, when the field of view of the instrument is aimed at the sun. As the movement device in its orbit the Sun "comes" the horizon of the planet and shines through the atmosphere. The second - the measurement mode on the dial, with the field of view is also directed to the edge of the planetary disk, but the sun is behind the machine. The third - the measurement mode to the nadir, when the device "looks" down the surface of Mars, and measures the sunlight reflected from the surface. In addition, how the spectrum of solar radiation after passing through the atmosphere or reflected from it, you can judge the presence in it of certain substances.
 
During the measurement of 20-28 November 2016 observations in the "solar eclipse" will not, but the field of view of both devices will be focused on the limb of the planet, as well as the nadir, so that the two research teams will be able to check the accuracy of the guidance to prepare for future measurements.
 
It is possible that in this way will be able to register the night glow in the upper atmosphere of Mars. They arise when on the night side of the planet recombine the atoms, resulting from the collapse of the molecules under the influence of solar wind particles on the dayside. Recombine the atoms emit energy in the form of photons, which are recorded as a glow.

more at the link...

http://www.roscosmos.ru/22938/

 

 

[SteveL]

A very serious accusation from ASI (Agenzia Spaziale Italiana) has been reported by Italian newspaper La Repubblica today. According to the article in this link

Tests on Mars Lander entrusted to an inexperienced firm.

 

The main points in the (roughly translated) article say:
 

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According to the technicians of the Asi with the opening of the parachute and as the atmosphere became more dense, Schiaparelli took to swing like a pendulum gone mad. An out-of-control situation who sent haywire magnetic localization systems. "At that time" they say from Asi "at the trip computer came conflicting information: the altimeter marked correctly 2000 meters above sea level, while the gyros marked -10, as if it were under the Martian soil". The onboard computer must have believed the gyroscopes and turned off the engines after just 3 seconds. Condemning the Schiaparelli to crash.

 

and.....

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... if only the Esa had made a fundamental test and several times requested by the Italians: a prototype of Schiaparelli was supposed to be launched from a stratospheric balloon on Earth, to see the effect of the probe on the parachute and retrorockets to get to grips with the crossing of the atmosphere

and finally the accusations....

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The industries involved in the construction of the spacecraft had suggested that evidence was entrusted to an experienced stratospheric launcher, the "Swedish space corporation". Instead Esa, there are those who say to save one million euros, awarded the tests to "an organization not equipped with sufficient expertise" as written by Flamini: the romanian Arca. The test has been long prepared, but then when it was clear that Arca was not able to prepare it, Esa gave up and used the  computer simulations developed by a British company. "But these crucial tests," said Flamini "has highlighted the lack of experience of the project team of Esa".

 

 

Edited November 19, 2016 by slear

[BetaguyGZT]

 My goodness. That would completely explain why it looks like the parachute is tangled up on the heat shield, then ripped off of the Lander. Swinging wildly like a "pendulum", receiving bad sensor data (explained above) while also obeying its' programmed decent instructions all at the same time would add up to what we're seeing in the post-mortem pictures.

 

Ouch. The ESA didn't follow proper testing practices during the Proving Phase ... even when asked to do so. All to save money that in the grand scheme of things wouldn't have meant anything at all.

 

Thanks for the update, @slear. My, my, my. The ESA is completely at fault for this one.  

[DocM]

Holy crap!! Arca?? Most of their experience is balloons, smaller drones and an air cushion hoverboard. Whatthehell was ESA thinking?

[FloatingFatMan]

Incompetence abounds, I see...

 

[Draggendrop Veteran]

This makes it official, the "landing plan" is "Super Dave and Fuji approved".   

 

 

[Draggendrop Veteran]

Russian company to produce lander module for Exomars-2020 mission in 2019 

 

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MOSCOW, November 21. /TASS/. Russia’s Lavochkin Company will complete fabrication of a lander module with a platform for the second stage of Exomars space mission scheduled to 2020, a source in the space industry told TASS on Monday.

"The unit consists of two components - flying and landing modules. It is intended to complete production of the unit and the landing platform nine months’ prior to launching the second Exomars mission, that is, in 2019," the source said.

Lavochkin has already started fabrication of the unit and the platform, the source said. "Their comprehensive tests will be carried in Europe," he added.
The second phase of Exomars mission is scheduled to 2020. Dispatch of the Russian landing platform and the European Mars rover is provided at this stage of the research project. Drilling and testing of Mars soil will be the key objectives of the stage. Researchers believe traces of organic life may be preserved at the depth of several meters.

http://tass.com/science/913766