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Schiaparelli Mars Probe's Parachute 'Jettisoned Too Early', Whereabouts Still Unknown (bbc.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Europe's Schiaparelli lander did not behave as expected as it headed down to the surface of Mars on Wednesday. Telemetry data recovered from the probe during its descent indicates that its parachute was jettisoned too early. The rockets it was supposed to use to bring itself to a standstill just above the ground also appeared to fire for too short a time. The European Space Agency (Esa) has not yet conceded that the lander crashed but the mood is not positive. Experts will continue to analyse the data and they may also try to call out to Schiaparelli in the blind hope that it is actually sitting on the Red Planet intact. In addition, the Americans will use one of their satellites at Mars to image the targeted landing zone to see if they can detect any hardware. Although, the chances are slim because the probe is small. For the moment, all Esa has to work with is the relatively large volume of engineering data Schiaparelli managed to transmit back to the "mothership" that dropped it off at Mars - the Trace Gas Orbiter.
Yeah, I do this all the time in Kerbal Space Program. From my experience, they just need to make sure the parachute icons aren't red or yellow when they deploy them. It always sucks to go through a whole mission only to mess up your landing and waste everything. I suggest they revert to launch and try again.
Come on guys, was this not checked, double-checked, and tested?
The simulations all ran successfully on "Lunar Lander".
the growth in cynicism and rebellion has not been without cause
Hey, everyone "jettisons too early" once in a while.
I wonder if the burn was shorter than planned because the ground came up and interrupted it... a likely possibility if the parachute released too early and snapped off. I've seen this happen before... in KSP.
"I will trust Google to 'do no evil' until the founders no longer run it." Hello Alphabet.
To recycle the old joke, "There are two kinds of countries: the kind that use the metric system, and the kind with successful Mars rovers."
Not only that, but this specific probe's landing was an experiment in preparation for a future mission in 2020. The main thrust (no pun intended) of the mission was to position the mothership which will be gathering most of the data.
It's disappointing the probe failed, but the information gathered and the root cause analysis of the experiment should provide good data for the next mission.
That's what she said.
Wrong!
"99 dead duelists of Dios on the wall. 99 dead duelists of Dios! Take one's ring, pass it around..."
So the emergency lithobraking maneuver didn't do the trick then. This sucks. Really.