ExoMars: From separation to landing

On 16 October, seven months and 500 million km after launching from Baikonur in Kazakhstan, the joint European and Russian ExoMars 2016 mission reaches a crucial phase.

The Trace Gas Orbiter will release its Schiaparelli lander for a three day coast and a six minute descent to the Martian surface.The lander, which was designed to demonstrate technologies for entry, descent and landing on Mars, is heading for the Meridiani Planum. This is an area that is currently being studied by NASA’s Opportunity rover and Europe’s Mars Express orbiter.

On 19 October, the Schiaparelli lander will be activated a few hours before reaching the Martian atmosphere, when it will be travelling at some 21 000 km/h. The front heatshield – covered with 90 insulating tiles – will be subjected to temperatures of up to 1500 degrees Celsius.

This video covers the separation, descent and landing procedures, as well as the orbiter’s critical burn to avoid crashing on the surface of Mars.

[riEfs]

This is the way NASA should do their CGI. The general public will be more interested in space if they see nice things. Congratulations ESA! I hope ExoMars is a complete success.

[StarAtom]

Wow how great. I'm looking forward to hearing more about it. I'll keep my ears open for ExoMars.

[JeffreyBue_imtxsmoke]

Really looking forward to a successful landing. Good luck ESA 👍

[ilya]

Жалко, что не получилось. Разобраться надо в причинах и пробовать еще раз. Удачи вам ребята!

[Gehr]

2:49 "Twelve hours after separation the Trace Gas Orbiter will fire its engines to raise it's trajectory and take it into orbit around Mars. Otherwise it would crash into the surface."
That doesn't sound right. Doesn't it slow down so that it gets captured by Mars and not just fly away again? What does the trajectory look like?

[rakuraku]

Already done in Kerbal Space Program :-P

[damasuisse]

Fantastique..! ExoMars vas permettre avec le temps de savoir si la vie à bien exister dans le passé sur la planète Mars à suivre.! MICHEL F6AFH

[RomanVladimirovichF]

Will the live broadcast of the work of the Control Center?

[thekoolaidmaker]

Great more animations of space. Why can't they point the Hubble telescope at Mars instead of this stuff, I know it wouldn't always be line of sight but it would much of the time. I want real pictures and video, we have the damn tech don't we? They put a camera on my phone, why not on these modules?

[johnmalone]

500million km journey to Mars?!?!?! you mean 54.6 million km journey to Mars. wow if they have that wrong what else are they reporting incorrectly.

[gianluca]

Two hours between landing and confirmation? How can You handle it?

[cmoores]

If you are going to go through all that expense of launching and landing on Mars why not include solar panels so you are not just littering?

[cedricvreekamp]

WE NEED RTG'S come on disposing a lander so soon.

[albertcrawler]

ESA is removing comments from Facebook... wow

[malikachternam]

Good job ESA, put humans please on the next rocket.

[oudotcom]

Why didn t they give it a solar panel to recharge its batteries ?? totally stupid....

[gavincurtis]

Sure raises a red flag that any mars lander equipped with biological analysis equipment on it suffers this unfortunate fate. Keep it minerals only instruments, they land just fine. Mars wishes to keep its secrets from the civilian population. Take a look at all of the Mars landers since the 70's and compare equipment platforms of the ones that crashed vs ones that landed safely. Success is strongly on the side of those without biological molecule detection. The original Viking both did pass organic molecule detection, but dismissed by NASA. Why is it so hard to simply say "mars can support life"? Who wants to keep it such a secret?