• Further Clues to Fate of Schiaparelli Mars Lander, Seen From Orbit

    From baalke@1:2320/100 to sci.space.news on Thu Oct 27 23:58:37 2016
    From Newsgroup: sci.space.news


    http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=6663

    Further Clues to Fate of Mars Lander, Seen From Orbit
    Jet Propulsion Laboratory
    October 27, 2016

    The most powerful telescope orbiting Mars is providing new details of
    the scene near the Martian equator where Europe's Schiaparelli test lander
    hit the surface last week.

    An Oct. 25 observation using the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows three impact locations within about 0.9 mile (1.5 kilometers) of each other. An annotated view is available online at

    http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/details.php?id=PIA21131

    The scene shown by HiRISE includes three locations where hardware reached
    the ground. A dark, roughly circular feature is interpreted as where the lander itself struck. A pattern of rays extending from the circle suggests that a shallow crater was excavated by the impact, as expected given the premature engine shutdown. About 0.8 mile (1.4 kilometers) eastward, an
    object with several bright spots surrounded by darkened ground is likely
    the heat shield. About 0.6 mile (0.9 kilometer) south of the lander impact site, two features side-by-side are interpreted as the spacecraft's parachute and the back shell to which the parachute was attached. Additional images
    to be taken from different angles are planned and will aid interpretation
    of these early results.

    The test lander is part of the European Space Agency's ExoMars 2016 mission, which placed the Trace Gas Orbiter into orbit around Mars on Oct. 19.
    The orbiter will investigate the atmosphere and surface of Mars and provide relay communications capability for landers and rovers on Mars.

    Data transmitted by Schiaparelli during its descent through Mars' atmosphere is enabling analysis of why the lander's thrusters switched off prematurely. The new HiRISE imaging provides additional information, with more detail
    than visible in an earlier view with the Context Camera (CTX) on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

    With HiRISE, CTX and four other instruments, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been investigating Mars since 2006.

    The University of Arizona, Tucson, operates HiRISE, which was built by
    Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. of Boulder, Colorado. NASA's Jet Propulsion

    Laboratory, a division of Caltech in Pasadena, California, manages the
    Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the orbiter and collaborates with JPL to operate it. For additional information about
    the project, visit:

    http://mars.nasa.gov/mro

    News Media Contact
    Guy Webster
    Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
    818-354-6278
    guy.webster@jpl.nasa.gov

    Markus Bauer
    European Space Agency, Villanueva de la Ca+ada, Spain
    0031 61 594 3 954
    markus.bauer@esa.int

    Dwayne Brown / Laurie Cantillo
    NASA Headquarters, Washington
    202-358-1726 / 202-358-1077
    dwayne.c.brown@nasa.gov / laura.l.cantillo@nasa.gov

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