A European Space Agency probe that was scheduled to test landing technology on Mars crashed and may have exploded on impact, according to photos of a circle of churned-up soil on the planet.
The event happened on Oct. 19, when Schiaparelli, ESA's ExoMars lander, operated together with the Russian Space Agency Roscosmos, was believed to have crashed due to a possible computer glitch. In their 2020 planned mission, researchers were hoping to land a scientific station and rover on the red planet, drilling up to 2 meters (6.6 feet) in their quest of finding possible proof for ancient life.
What Happened To Schiaparelli
A deep understanding of what went wrong with Schiaparelli is a priority in designing better technology, according to Jorge Vago, ExoMars project scientist.
"That's super important. I think it's on everybody's mind," he said, addressing the issue.
There have been other missions that failed to accomplish their final purposes, such as the British ESA-operated Beagle 2, which actually disappeared upon landing back in 2003. This time, however, the probe did send data to the mother ship during the crash.
According to initial reports, it seems that the first steps of the maneuver were performed flawlessly, as the probe managed to brake against Mars' atmosphere and deploy its parachute, without announcing a failure.
However, 4 minutes and 41 seconds in, something went wrong, causing the lander's heat shield parachute to eject ahead of time. Based on preliminary examinations, the lander switched on its suite of instruments, aiming to record Mars' weather and electrical field. Naturally, the probe failed to collect data in the process.
"My guess is that at that point we were still too high. And the most likely scenario is that, from then, we just dropped to the surface," Vago explained.
The current estimation of the distance Schiaparelli fell from is somewhere between 1.2 miles and 2.5 miles, with an impact from more than 186 miles per hour, based on the images captured by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter on Oct. 20.
Software Glitch Or A Sensor-Based Issue
It seems that the problem was caused by a software glitch or a sensor-based issue, which may have estimated a much lower altitude of the probe than the real one, which would explain all the preparations to collect evidence as part of its mission, according to Andrea Accomazzo, ESA's head of solar and planetary missions.
The data that would reveal what actually happened to the Schiaparelli probe is crucial to the pursuit of understanding and surpassing technical roadblocks in future expeditions, although ESA's representatives have been careful not to reveal every step of their pursuit so far.
