ESA ExoMars Mission has lost contact with the Schiaparelli lander

No contact has yet been established with the Schiaparelli lander, which is mostly a technical demonstration with a small science payload.

Aditya Madanapalle|Oct 20, 2016, 13:20:47 IST

The ExoMars mission by the European Space Agency (ESA) has two spacecraft, an orbiter and a lander. The Trace Gas Orbiter successfully executed a 139 long minute burn operation and is in the planned orbit around the Red Planet. However, no contact has yet been established with the Schiaparelli lander, which is mostly a technical demonstration with a small science payload. The ExoMars mission can be tracked in the ExoMars web site, and there is going to be a livestream briefing the media about the updates of the mission, and you can catch it right here.

The Schiaparelli lander attempted a dangerous landing on the Martian surface about a hundred and seven minutes after the Trace Gas Orbiter started its orbital insertion maneuver. Parachutes from the back were deployed, and a heat shield protected the front of the spacecraft. Even India helped with the operations with the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope in Pune establishing contact with the Schiaparelli lander just as it started making its decent. The signal was lost some time before the landing.[caption id="attachment_342360" align="aligncenter" width="640"]

The Schiaparelli Lander. Image: ESA/ATG medialab[/caption]There is no cause to lose all hope yet though. The Schiaparelli lander is equipped with a battery that is expected to last at least 10 days on Mars. Over the duration of these days, the lander is programmed to automatically try and establish contact with Earth over several windows. The previous orbiter by ESA, MarsExpress will attempt to listen to beacons from the lander. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and the Mars Atmosphere & Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecrafts from NASA will also attempt to look for signals. Finally, the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope in India, which is the world's largest interferometric array, will also try to make contact.