On a dramatic and eventful day, on October 19, 2016, the European Schiaparelli Mars lander attempted a landing on the surface of Mars, but apparently failed to stick it.
The high-speed descent called for the Schiaparelli lander to slow from 21,000 km per hour to a standstill on the Martian surface in the space of six minutes. In that time, the spacecraft was programmed to release a parachute and fire nine thrusters to slow its fall through the tenuous atmosphere, before belly-flopping the final two meters to the ground, cushioned by a crushable underside.
Signals sent from the Lander and picked up the veteran Mars Express orbiter showed that the descent was going well but the signals terminated soon after the thrusters were fired.
Analysis of returned telemetry and data as of 20 October 2016, suggests that the heat shield and parachute deployment worked as expected, but the ejection of the back heat shield and parachute occurred earlier than planned. In addition, the subsequent firing of the thrusters lasted about 3-4 seconds only, much shorter than expected, probably resulting in a hard landing.
The “mother-ship” ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) made a successful entry into orbit around Mars and is performing well.
ExoMars (Exobiology on Mars) is a two-part Martian astrobiology life searching project and a joint mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) and Russian Federal Space Agency (RFSA). It placed into Mars orbit the TGO probe and released the stationary lander Schiaparelli today, and will be followed in 2020 with a surface rover, supporting a science mission that is expected to last into 2022 or beyond.
You can follow the latest news for ExoMars at twitter.com/...
Mars Landings
No other agency besides NASA has successfully landed Rovers and Landers on the Martian surface.
Out of total of 20 landing missions, only 8 have succeeded, all by NASA. NASA had one failure; all 11 missions by the Russians and Europeans have resulted in failure.
Here is a list of Mars landing missions to date from en.wikipedia.org/… Note that other Mars missions that did not involve landing on the surface are not shown.
Note that sol = Martian day = 24 hours, 39 minutes, and 35.244 seconds
Planned Mars Landing Missions
Here is a list of planned Mars landing missions from en.wikipedia.org/...
Selected Comparisons
SPAcecraft |
Type |
Landing Technology |
WEIGHT |
Year |
Status |
Viking 1 & 2 |
Lander |
Retrorockets |
572 kg |
1975 |
Success |
Phoenix |
Lander |
Retrorockets |
350 kg |
2007 |
Success |
ExoMars Schiaparelli |
Lander |
Retrorockets |
577 kg |
2016 |
Failure |
ExoMars 2020 Rover |
Rover |
Retrorockets |
|
2020 |
|
NASA Mars 2020 |
Rover |
Sky Crane |
|
2020 |
|
Mars Landing Techniques
A trip to Mars involves surviving launch, months of travel in space buzzing with radiation, separation from the mother-ship and the final treacherous landing sequence.
Landing on Mars has been a challenging problem over the years and various techniques have been tried — some successful, others not. Upon arrival at Mars, a spacecraft is traveling at velocities of 4 to 7 km/s. For a lander to deliver its payload to the surface, 100 percent of this kinetic energy must be safely removed. Fortunately, Mars has an atmosphere substantial enough for the combination of a high-drag heat shield and a parachute to remove 99 percent and 0.98 percent respectively of the kinetic energy. Unfortunately, the Martian atmosphere is not substantial enough to bring a lander to a safe touchdown using parachutes alone. An additional landing system is necessary to remove the remaining kinetic energy.
The following videos show some of the Mars landing techniques used over the years and planned for the future.
NASA Opportunity Rover (2003). Landing using airbags. Also used by NASA Pathfinder and Spirit rovers.
NASA Phoenix Lander (2007). Landing using retrorockets. Also used by Viking Landers and will be used by the Insight lander (2018).
NASA Curiosity Rover (2011). Landing using retrorockets and Sky Crane. Also to be used by the Mars 2020 Rover (2020)
ESA Schiaparelli Lander (2016). Landing using retrorockets. Lander status is unknown at this point.
NASA/SpaceX Dragon 2 capsule (2018). Landing using retrorockets, no parachutes.
SpaceX Interplanetary Transport System, manned (2024). Landing using retrorockets, no parachutes.
NASA Funding
NASA’s budget has been on a steady decline since 1992, in spite of it taking on more and more missions, as shown in the chart below. 2015 funding was $18 billion.
Since the termination of the NASA Space Shuttle program in 2011, the U.S. does not have crewed spacecraft capability and relies on the Russian space program to transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station. The SpaceX Dragon and Orbital ATK Cygnus spacecraft are used to transport equipment and supplies only. The first crewed flight, using the SpaceX's Dragon V2 spacecraft, is planned for August 2017.
On the other hand, NASA deep space missions have had tremendous success — including unmanned missions and ground and space based telescopes.
Meanwhile, China has an ambitious space program, just launched two men to spend 4 weeks at its space laboratory, built the world’s largest radio telescope (FAST), recently launched a quantum communications satellite, is working towards establishing a lunar colony and has plans for Mars landing missions.
Some Musings
Space is hard. We do these things not because they are easy, but because we seek to know the answers to fundamental questions, such as the extent of life in the universe. And because the goal of civilization spread across the solar system and thence to the stars, is reciprocal with the goal of sustainability and peace on Earth. (courtesy G2geek)
Yes, there will be setbacks and failed rockets and landings. But, human ingenuity and perseverance has not bounds and will rise to meet and conquer these challenges.
References and Further Reading
Please see my diaries listed at www.dailykos.com/… and diaries in the SciTech group www.dailykos.com/… for articles and discussions on space and other science related topics, including -
- Why is it so hard to land on Mars? www.irishexaminer.com/…
- History's most spectacular Mars mission fails — mashable.com/...
- #SpaceChat from the ISS between NIH Director and DNA-Sequencing Astronaut Dr. Kate Rubins — www.dailykos.com/…
- Exoplanet Proxima b - Water, Ocean, Life? — www.dailykos.com/…
- The James Webb Space Telescope — www.dailykos.com/...
- FAST, the World's Largest Radio Telescope — www.dailykos.com/...
- Asteroids and Planetary Defense — www.dailykos.com/...
- Europa and water — www.dailykos.com/...