The teams of the european space Agency are now waiting to know if their lander will be operating on the planet Mars.
Europe in space was successful, Wednesday, October 19, to place the probe européano-Russian TGO orbit of Mars, and the lander Schiaparelli was ” hit the ground “ of the red planet, but it gives no news since. the ” The lander touched ground, it is safe “, told the Agence France-Presse (AFP) Thierry Blancquaert, responsible for Schiaparelli at the european space Agency (ESA), after studying a series of data.
” Now, is that he has hit the ground in good conditions or is it that there has been a rock placed in the wrong position, a crater or just a problem with his radio transmitter, I don’t know yet “, he said. the ” But I’m not very optimistic, “ on the data deemed to have been taken after the landing of the module.
some concern was noticeable on Wednesday 19 October in the late afternoon at the european Centre of space operations (ESOC) in Darmstadt (Germany).
Read also : With the ExoMars, Europe is closer to the red Planet
The probes tend the ear
It probes around Mars, which will allow to know where is Schiaparelli. Launched thirteen years ago, the european probe Mars Express is listening for a signal. The data that it has sent are in the process of being decrypted.
Simultaneously, the probe’s scientific européano-Russian TGO, which is separated Sunday from the lander, and will analyse the atmosphere of Mars, has almost completed its braking maneuvers to get into orbit around Mars. She should make the tour of Mars in four days. Brushing the top of the martian atmosphere, it will slow to every passage, which, without fuel, it will settle into orbit more circular at about 400 km altitude in… a year.
” It looks very well for it “, said Michel Denis, director of flight operations of the ExoMars mission at the ESA. It is ” very likely “ of Europe ” two satellites around Mars “, with Mars Express, he said, with a broad smile.
operations perilous
The two phases of Wednesday afternoon were risky. In 2003, Europe had, for example, lost contact with his rover Beagle 2, landed on the martian soil, but inactive. The inserts in orbit are also not always well spent, with three failures since 1993 for Japan and the United States, and five successes (for India, the United States and Europe).
This mission ExoMars 2016 precedes another, more ambitious, by 2020 : to put a vehicle capable of drilling up to 2 meters depth in the martian soil and analyze samples preserved in photochemical destruction. With the hope of putting traces of organic materials inaccessible until now.
The same year, the Chinese have also planned to ask, just as Americans with a new rover, similar to Curiosity, which has been exploring since 2012 the red Planet. Previously, in 2018, NASA will have deposited instruments designed to probe the interior of the planet with the mission Insight.
” We have done all of this to have data on how to land on Mars with the european technology ”
Jocelyne Landeau-Constantin, spokesperson for the ESOC
Schiaparelli is a ” demonstrator “ landing, whose role is above all technological and non-scientific. The module is equipped with a small weather station. If he ever arrived at work, there would be only a few days to live, because it is equipped of batteries. Whatever the fate of Schiaparelli, ” we have learned a lot of things because we’ve recorded a lot of data during its descent “, told AFP Jocelyne Landeau-Constantin, spokesperson at ESOC.
” We have done all of this to have data on how to land on Mars with the european technology “, he said. the ” The data that we will recover this night (…) we will use it to understand how “ to prepare the landing of a mobile robot on Mars in 2020, he stressed.
Read also : the ExoMars to the assault of the planet Mars
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