Post by Deleted on Oct 20, 2016 6:51:47 GMT 7
There are growing fears a European probe that attempted to land on Mars on Wednesday has been lost.
Tracking of the Schiaparelli robot's radio signals was dropped less than a minute before it was expected to touch down on the Red Planet's surface.
Satellites at Mars have attempted to shed light on the probe's status, so far without success.
One American satellite even called out to Schiaparelli to try to get it to respond.
The fear will be that the robot has crashed and been destroyed. The European Space Agency, however, is a long way from formally calling that outcome.
Its engineers will be running through "fault trees" seeking to figure out why communication was lost and what they can do next to retrieve the situation.
This approach could well last several days.
Jump
www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-37707776
Tracking of the Schiaparelli robot's radio signals was dropped less than a minute before it was expected to touch down on the Red Planet's surface.
Satellites at Mars have attempted to shed light on the probe's status, so far without success.
One American satellite even called out to Schiaparelli to try to get it to respond.
The fear will be that the robot has crashed and been destroyed. The European Space Agency, however, is a long way from formally calling that outcome.
Its engineers will be running through "fault trees" seeking to figure out why communication was lost and what they can do next to retrieve the situation.
This approach could well last several days.
Jump
www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-37707776
