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Europe and Russia prepare for historic landing on Mars
- gghh 10y agoThe relevant twitter accounts are @ESA_ExoMars and @ESA_EDM. According to https://twitter.com/ESA_ExoMars/status/788621746446401536 https://twitter.com/ESA_ExoMars/status/788621746446401536 there will be a live streaming today at 15:00 CEST.
- r721 10y agoAlso https://twitter.com/esaoperations https://twitter.com/esaoperations
- jessriedel 10y agoTweet from the lander: 15:03UT: Accordingly to nominal timeline, Schiaparelli be shutting down its radio after landing to conserve power. Stay tuned #ExoMars https://twitter.com/ESA_EDM/status/788757413931413508 https://twitter.com/ESA_EDM/status/788757413931413508 It's unclear to me whether they expected to hear a confirmation signal after landing before entering this power-saving mode. EDIT: Not good. End of planned @ESA_EDM transmission - still no signal at #GMRT - this is not unexpected due to very faint signal at #GMRT #ExoMars https://twitter.com/esaoperations https://twitter.com/esaoperations
- aedron 10y ago> No photos will be taken on the surface, because the lander lacks a surface camera. For the love of all that's holy... ESA needs to learn a thing or two from NASA about public relations.
- flippyhead 10y agoYeah at least we Americans _pretended_ to have cameras when we faked the moon landing.
- corecoder 10y agoThinking about that, how easier would it be to just say: alas, we cannot bring cameras because reasons...
- grecy 10y agoThe Americans needed footage of the moon landing to fight the propaganda war against Russia.
- kyriakos 10y agoDo people really believe moon landing was faked? Serious question by the way, I thought it was a conspiracy for tin foil hats and not a serious theory.
- jandrese 10y agoThere is a certain fringe who seriously believe it, among other things. Your average person on the street doesn't take that theory seriously though.
- mturmon 10y agoOf course anyone can believe anything, but here you go: https://chemtrailsplanet.net/2015/12/19/another-nasa-hoax-mars-rovers-discovered-staged-at-devon-island-canada/ https://chemtrailsplanet.net/2015/12/19/another-nasa-hoax-ma...
- flippyhead 10y agoI'm pretty dismayed to re-visit this comment a few days later and realize people didn't get my sarcasm. I always forget the tinfoil _also_ blocks sarcasm.
- merraksh 10y agoESA needs to learn a thing or two from NASA about public relations. And then choose whether or not to practise these teachings based on space/weight constraints and the type of mission (scientific, in this case). I'm sure they did think about it for a minute, but I have the feeling that the European public opinion doesn't have a "picture or it didn't happen" attitude.
- rubber_duck 10y ago>but I have the feeling that the European public opinion doesn't have a "picture or it didn't happen" attitude It's more that these things are funded up the EU chain, people deciding it don't even need to get elected (and EU representatives get elected on a different issues) so they probably don't give a shit what the public thinks about them spending their money.
- arethuza 10y agoMost (80%) of ESA's funding comes directly from countries, not via the EU, so the people making funding decisions are very much directly elected: http://www.esa.int/About_Us/Welcome_to_ESA/ESA_and_the_EU http://www.esa.int/About_Us/Welcome_to_ESA/ESA_and_the_EU NB I don't know if funding decisions are made on a project by project basis. Edit: Also for the European Commissioners are appointed by the elected governments of member states.
- rubber_duck 10y ago>Also for the European Commissioners are appointed by the elected governments of member states. Who campaign and are elected on issues totally unrelated to things like this. Basically the public probably doesn't even know it's paying for this until it's reported in the news. At least stuff like this gets debated in the US. For example if I walked around in my office among 20 people (with higher education and into tech) and ask them what ESA is I doubt 5 would know what it stands for and even less that they are paying for it. Everyone knows what NASA is.
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- aeharding 10y agoAlthough the lander does not have a camera, the rover, due to launch in 2020 as part of the ExoMars mission, does have a panoramic camera system. (It also has other imaging devices.) [1] [1] http://exploration.esa.int/mars/45103-rover-instruments/ http://exploration.esa.int/mars/45103-rover-instruments/
- tonmoy 10y agoThis is just a proof of concept lander
- maaaats 10y agoThe Rosetta mission (by ESA) just recently have had the best overage I've ever seen. The cute videos, lots of updates, twitter accounts etc.
- ceejayoz 10y agoNot to mention the science fiction short film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32vlOgN_3QQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32vlOgN_3QQ
- Iv 10y agoA pet-peeve of mine. While NASA made everyone holding their breath with overpriced RC rovers that scratched a few rocks, ESA had launched a boring orbiter that "just" gave a map of the water concentration on Mars ( http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_RrgXNFu0ocA/Sg_ldzogLlI/AAAAAAAAAEM/dnAYhoC5q_0/s1600/H2Omap.png http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_RrgXNFu0ocA/Sg_ldzogLlI/AAAAAAAAAE... ) <- I had to dig through a PPT to find that map on slide 20.
- merraksh 10y agoThe name of the probe is perhaps a dedication to Giovanni Schiaparelli, a 19th century astronomer: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Schiaparelli https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Schiaparelli
- lorenzhs 10y agoYes it is: http://spacefellowship.com/news/art35863/exomars-lander-module-named-schiaparelli.html http://spacefellowship.com/news/art35863/exomars-lander-modu... He made a surface map of Mars nearly 150 years ago.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- yostrovs 10y agoConsidering the publication in Nature, you'd think there would be a greater scientific aspect to this mission. Instead it's a proof of concept test of a landing system, and that's about all.
- craigsmansion 10y agoThe Trace Gas Orbiter "mothership" will also scan for methane on Mars. Furthermore it will also act as a communications relay satellite for rovers. It's not just a test of a landing system.
- verytrivial 10y ago10MB gif on the mobile page? Really, Nature?
- bemmu 10y agoThe moment of landing is set for 14:48:11 GMT (16:48:11 CEST) on 19 October.
- wiz21c 10y agowhat if the parachute falls on the module after landing ?
- Hondor 10y agoThe lander appears to have failed :( Official confirmation at 6pm UTC.
- kl4m 10y agoAny source? Direct communication to Earth was expected to be unstable, but there is a satellite monitoring the lander as well...
- mhandley 10y agoFrom Spaceflight news: "The carrier signal from Schiaparelli was received by an Indian radio telescope array up until a point late in the the probe's descent sequence, apparently some time after it deployed its parachute. "We were tracking the signal traced to near the arrivial on the surface of Mars," the mission director said. "We expected it to continue, but clearly it did not. I think we have to recognize this was an experimental setup." Engineers were not sure the direct radio link from Schiaparelli to Earth would be stable, so ESA's Mars Express and Trace Gas Orbiter spacecraft were recording the carrier signal and detailed telemetry, respectively. ESA says it will take about 90 minutes for that information to be relayed to Earth and analyzed. "Let's not jump to conclusions," the mission director said. "We need to look at it, and we need to wait for the next step to get additional data from one of the relay stations... Let's wait for the next step to look at the more complete dataset."
- baq 10y agoESA management are scared to lose funding, hence the tone: > ESA chief Woerner now spinning possible landing failure in a way to ensure that $330M is available from ESA govts for ExoMars 2020 in Dec. https://twitter.com/pbdes/status/788811531404337152 https://twitter.com/pbdes/status/788811531404337152 would be unfortunate and sad if this failure would mean cancellation of the real mission :(
- desireco42 10y agoSo, it isn't responding. There is one thing I never understood. Why first step to anywhere is not a communication satellite. Why do we have to directly talk to anything in Solar System. We have probes to Jupiter and we talk to them with dishes from the ground on Earth. Same goes for launching everything from Earth, but there I assume, things are a little bit more complex. Anyhow, there should be satellites around Moon and Mars at least, that act as relay stations. In case of landings on Mars, let us watch live (with delay) landings. I guess until Musk and Bezos start doing things, emphasis on first one, we will not have good space program.
- eunoia 10y agoWe have three Mars orbiters that act as communication relays currently. MRO, Mars Express and MAVEN. A fourth is proposed for 2022. Edit: The orbiter component of this mission also acts as a relay.
- matco11 10y agoSignal acquired! https://twitter.com/esaoperations/status/788780512089432064 https://twitter.com/esaoperations/status/788780512089432064
- retSava 10y agoThat's "just" the orbiter IIUC, what we are waiting for is signs of life from the lander.
- e12e 10y ago"Operating on the planet's surface would also be a first for Russia’s space agency, Roscosmos, which is a partner in the mission — and which plans to partake in future joint Europe–Russia missions, including a 2020 rover landing on Mars. The Soviet Union came close to success in 1971 with the Mars 3 probe, which failed just 20 seconds after landing on the surface." First I was excited to become aware of a new human artifact landing on Mars today - but now I'm even more fascinated by how things could've turned out if the Russians had managed to boogie around in an rc car on Mars three decades ahead of NASA...
- lucb1e 10y ago> how things could've turned out if the Russians had managed to boogie around in an rc car on Mars three decades ahead of NASA... Do you mean that in a threat to the world way or in a yay for science way?
- funkyy 10y agoPropaganda would make it as a thread, but scientists (from west), if allowed, could use this data for scientific reasons.