Fed2 Star - the newsletter for the space trading game Federation 2

The weekly newsletter for Fed2
by ibgames

EARTHDATE: October 23, 2016

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EXOMARS: GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS

by Hazed

The good news is that the ExoMars mission arrived at Mars last Sunday afternoon, as predicted, and the Trace Gas Orbiter is in place, in orbit around the planet and ready to do its science stuff.

The bad news is that having separated from its mothership, the Schiaparelli lander descended to the planet on Wednesday, and then wasn’t heard from again.

As I write this, it seems that the lander crashed, although the ESA will continue to try to get in contact with it in the faint hope that it made it to the surface intact.

Examining the telemetry data sent back to the orbitter, mission control has concluded that its parachute was jettisoned too early, and the rockets it was supposed to use to bring itself to a standstill just above the ground didn’t fire for long enough.

This is a disappointing result, obviously, but it’s not a complete disaster. The landing was intended to be a demonstration of the technology, to give Europe the learning experience needed for its planned six-wheeled Mars rover in 2021. The actual touch-down may have gone wrong, but the early parts of the descent worked: the heatshield used as the probe entered the Martian atmosphere did its job of slowing the craft, and the parachute opened as it was supposed to, supplying a further deceleration. Even the failure is going to be useful data for the future mission.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-37715202
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/oct/20/mars-lander-lost-signal-one-minute-before-landing-esa-confirms
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/10/21/esa_finds_where_schiaparelli_probe_hit_mars/

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