The Schiaparelli probe has arrived on Mars, but unfortunately the outcome has not been positive: as feared for hours now, it is now official that the ExoMars mission lander has crashed on Mars. The retrorockets in fact only worked for three seconds, after which the on-board computer turned them off, not slowing down Schiaparelli enough in its delicate landing phase. The announcement comes from Paolo Ferri, director of flight operations for European Space Agency missions.
“The data we have – said Ferri – say that the landing sequence worked until the rear screen of the parachute detached. At that point the ignition of the retrorockets only worked for three seconds, then the on-board computer decided to turn them off“. At that point Schiaparelli found himself with the rockets extinguished and "let's suppose that the lander simply fell". A little while ago also the official news that the object disintegrated on the soil of the red planet.
In the mission control center (Esoc) located in Darmstadt, Germany, work continues on the analysis of the data recorded by the probe of the ExoMars mission, the TGO (Trace Gas Orbiter) to establish whether the malfunction was of the computer or of the altimeter. “We still don't know what exactly happened in the last phase of the descent. We will know more in the near future, after we have elaborated in detail all the data that the TGO spacecraft recorded during the descent phase", reiterated ESA director general, Jahn Woerner, during a press conference held at the ground center that follows the European missions of interplanetary probes.
In none of the further passages that took place during the night, NASA's MRO probe (Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter) was able to intercept any signal from the ExoMars mission lander. The good news is that Europe has another probe, the second one, in the orbit of Mars, the Tgo (Trace Gas Orbiter), which is working perfectly. "We confirm that the tgo orbiting probe works perfectly - said Woerner - and this is already a great success in itself".
