landing on Mars - again

silv (Annette) · #1 20-10-2016, 04:11 AM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27c6p-6za9o

this Russian youtube stream was the only reliable one during the event

glend (Glen) · #2 20-10-2016, 04:21 AM

Seems the lander may have not made it, vrry quiet over at ESA.

silv (Annette) · #3 20-10-2016, 04:54 AM

"inconclusive" is the latest update.
next possible confirmation within the next 2 hours.
So far for the lander.

The TGO still has to get confirmed of being on the intended orbit.
That confirmation - and with that the second part of the ESA event will proceed - will be at 8.30pm CEST = 6.30pm UST

silv (Annette) · #4 20-10-2016, 04:58 AM

right now the control room is so quiet because everyone is at the banquet outside the door with the press people from the event

it was very emotional at some stage with Italian hugging, French kisses and Russian live applause

silv (Annette) · #5 20-10-2016, 05:01 AM

This coverage is more waiting than exciting.
Especially with the ESA live feed being so faulty... (until I found the link to youtube, that is).

I watched the Philae landing and it was very exciting and emotional the whole time. Loved it!

bojan · #6 20-10-2016, 07:12 AM

for the link
It seems it landed, but signal is still on it's way to us.
They took a break.. Or something went wrong...

silv (Annette) · #7 20-10-2016, 08:15 AM

actually, they think they lost the lander.
During the German night, they will analyse the 28MB (twentyeight megabyte - not Giga

)
of data they received from both crafts in orbit of Mars.
And by 8am UTC, when the press conference will be held, they believe they can tell story of what happened.

In the last ESA event at 6.30 UTC they were very keen on expressing that the lander was a "TEST" lander.
testing the landing steps that will bring the rover on Mars in 2020.

silv (Annette) · #8 20-10-2016, 08:23 AM

well... the lander has landed, I suppose.
Might have caused a new crater, though.

silv (Annette) · #9 20-10-2016, 07:36 PM

Does anyone know the reason why the landing was "tested" during the dusty season?
I understood that, meteorologically, there would have been a better time to land on Mars.
Why was it tested during a known bad weather condition?

And of course, I wasn't even aware that Mars has "seasons", or even "dusty season".

silv (Annette) · #10 20-10-2016, 07:41 PM

you would want to conduct a test in comparable conditions to the real event. that would mean the rover is planned to be landed in the dusty season, as well.

... Oh... I think I remember now. It was because of the 3 meteorological instruments on board SChiaparelli that the dusty season made sense. The more stuff is blowing aorund, the more stuff there would have been gathered to be analyzed. Yeah, I think that was it..

silv (Annette) · #11 20-10-2016, 07:46 PM

Maybe, the wind speed was underestimated... and the parachutes got blown miles away...
Maybe not.
Intriguing, for sure.

bojan · #12 20-10-2016, 07:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by silv

well... the lander has landed, I suppose.
Might have caused a new crater, though.

It did..
It seems retro-motors were active, but not long enough.

pluto (Hugh) · #13 20-10-2016, 08:46 PM

The facts so far:
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Sp...oding_underway

Also looks like Oppy didn't catch it, and I guess none of the descent camera frames made it back - I think they were to be uplinked during the first MRO overpass

Will be interesting to see what Hirise will find when it images the area.

Matt Wastell (Matt) · #14 22-10-2016, 11:11 AM

Splat
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Sp...i_landing_site

silv (Annette) · #15 22-10-2016, 11:30 AM

thanks for that

el_draco (Rom) · #16 22-10-2016, 12:36 PM

That must have hurt...