Wait goes on for Europe’s Schiaparelli Mars lander

The European Space Agency (ESA) is awaiting a signal from its Mars lander, Schiaparelli amidst growing fears its touchdown has been unsuccessful.

Radio contact with the little probe was lost some time before it completed its descent.

Scientists at ESA’s space operations centre in Darmstadt, Germany, are downloading diagnostic data, with the aim of figuring out the situation. 

An early assessment is that the lander did not perform as expected on landing, with the parachute opening too early.  

The Schiaparelli mission, a joint project with the Russian space agency Roscosmos, is intended as a dress rehearsal for future Mars landings.

Europe has the ambition to land a six-wheel rover, built in the UK by Airbus Defence and Space, on the planet in 2020.

NASA has already landed several robotic vehicles on Mars, including the Opportunity and Curiosity rovers.

If Schiaparelli is confirmed as lost, it will be fresh blow to ESA, which experienced the Beagle-2’s failure to communicate with earth following its landing on Mars in 2003.

Schiaparelli, built in Italy, used a range of techniques to slow its 21,000 kilometres per hour descent to zero, including a heat shield, parachute and retrorockets.

While its fate hangs in the balance, ESA received news that the lander’s “mothership” had successfully stationed itself in orbit above the planet. The Trace Gas Orbiter will study Mars’ atmospheric gases from space.

The key gas to detect is methane, which would hint at life on the planet.