Moments from Mars, European spacecraft goes silent
Lander may be latest to fail on its mission
Mars may have claimed another victim.
Europe’s Schiaparelli lander, scheduled to settle into the Martian dust at 10: 48 a. m. ET Wednesday, fell silent only a minute or so before its scheduled landing time. It’s too early to declare game over, but officials with the European Space Agency acknowledged the failure of both an Earth- based telescope and a Mars- orbiting spacecraft to detect signals from Schiaparelli is worrisome.
“It’s clear that these are not good signs,” said Paolo Ferri, the space agency’s head of mission operations.
Ferri said engineers will work around the clock to analyze data from Europe’s Trace Gas Orbiter, which swung into orbit around Mars on Wednesday and may hold a cache of information transmitted from Schiaparelli, a stationary research base aimed at testing landing technologies.
Unless engineers establish that the craft is alive and well, Schiaparelli will join a long list of landers that fell victim to Mars’ dangerous charms.
Over the past three decades, roughly half of all Mars missions, which includes both landers and orbiters, have failed. Vehicles that dared to aim for Martian soil have burned up in the atmosphere, smashed into the surface or missed the planet entirely. The list of spacecraft that arrived safely on the Martian surface numbers only seven.
For much of Wednesday, it looked like Schiaparelli would make it eight. As the lander descended toward the Red Plan- et, a giant telescope in India picked up signals suggesting Schiaparelli abruptly reduced its speed, an expected response to the opening of its parachute. Later signals established the parachute ripped away from the craft as intended, revealing nine thrusters that were supposed to slow the craft.
But then the Indian telescope lost the signal, as did Europe’s Mars Express spacecraft.
Not all was lost, though. Mission personnel were jubilant over the Trace Gas Orbiter’s successful arrival into Martian orbit. The orbiter, which launched with Schiaparelli in tow in March, will sniff out gases such as methane that may have been generated by living things.
“Mars for many reasons is a very difficult target,” said Olivier Witasse of the European Space Agency.