Photo captures crash site of European Mars lander
A low-resolution camera aboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has captured images showing a large “fuzzy dark patch” on the surface of the red planet where the European Space Agency’s experimental Schiaparelli lander presumably crashed Wednesday, possibly exploding on impact, after its braking rockets apparently shut down a mile or more above the surface, ESA officials said Friday.
MRO’s low-resolution Context Camera, carrying out previously planned observations, shows a bright feature, presumably the remains of Schiaparelli’s 40-foot-wide supersonic parachute, and a dark spot measuring some 50 by 130 feet across, that is believed to be the site where the lander hit the surface.
The dark spot is about six tenths of a mile from the presumed parachute on a relatively smooth plain known as Meridiani Planum.
“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,” ESA said in a statement.
The Schiaparelli lander fell into the martian atmosphere at 10:42 a.m. EDT (GMT-4) Wednesday, two days after release from ESA’s Trace Gas Orbiter spacecraft. The TGO spacecraft successfully entered orbit around Mars while Schiaparelli was attempting its landing.
The experimental lander, ESA’s first at Mars, hit the top of the discernible atmosphere at an altitude of 75 miles while traveling at some 13,000 mph. The descent to the surface was expected to take about six minutes.
Analysis of telemetry indicates the lander survived the blazing heat of atmospheric entry, successfully deployed its braking parachute and jettisoned its heat shield, all as planned. The flight plan called for Schiaparelli to cut the parachute free less than a mile above the surface and then to fire nine small rocket motors to gently descend to touchdown.
But contact was lost about a minute before the anticipated landing, right around the time the parachute was jettisoned. The MRO images show Schiaparelli landed on target, but not as planned.
“Estimates are that Schiaparelli dropped from a height of between 2 and 4 kilometers (1.2 miles and 2.5 miles), therefore impacting at a considerable speed, greater than 300 km/h (186 mph),” the European Space Agency said in its statement.
“The relatively large size of the feature would then arise from disturbed surface material. It is also possible that the lander exploded on impact, as its thruster propellant tanks were likely still full. These preliminary interpretations will be refined following further analysis.”
The new surface features are located about three miles from the intended landing point, well within the target zone.
“Since the module’s descent trajectory was observed from three different locations, the teams are confident that they will be able to reconstruct the chain of events with great accuracy,” ESA said. “The exact mode of anomaly onboard Schiaparelli is still under investigation.”
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter will image the site in much more detail next week using its high resolution HiRISE camera, capable of resolving features just 12 inches across. The CTX camera that spotted the parachute and the dark spot at the landing site has a resolution of 20 feet per pixel.
