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THE EUROPEAN SPACE Agency lost contact with an experimental Mars probe shortly before its planned landing on the red planet today. Scientists said that wasn’t a good sign for the Schiaparelli lander, but it was too soon to give up on the craft.
ESA successfully put Schiaparelli’s mother ship, which will analyze the Martian atmosphere, into orbit. But several hours after the lander was supposed to have touched down, there was no firm word on its fate.
“The signal (from Schiaparelli) went through the majority of the descent phase but it stopped at a certain point that we reckon was before the landing,” Paolo Ferri, ESA’s head of operations, said at mission control in Darmstadt, Germany.
To conclude more on this, because there could be many reasons for that, we need more information … it’s clear that these are not good signs.
An update is expected tomorrow.
Hunt for life
Schiaparelli was meant to test technology for a future European robotic mission to Mars. It is part of a larger international mission called ExoMars that will help in the hunt for life on the planet.
Schiaparelli was released from the mother ship, the Trace Gas Orbiter, on Sunday. Scientists said the gentle approach would turn into a six-minute hell ride when the probe plunged into the hot, dusty Martian atmosphere and hurtled toward the surface at 21,000 kilometers an hour.
The plan was for Schiaparelli to deploy a parachute and then thrusters to slow down to 10 kph before hitting the surface.
Landing a spacecraft on Mars is notoriously difficult and several past missions have failed, including the European Space Agency’s previous attempt in 2003 with the rover Beagle 2. It made it to Mars but its solar panels didn’t unfold properly, preventing it from communicating.
While Schiaparelli has some scientific instruments on board, its main purpose was to rehearse the landing and test technology for a European rover mission to Mars in 2020. NASA has successfully placed several robotic vehicles on the planet, including the Opportunity and Curiosity rovers.
The ExoMars program, which comprises the current and 2020 mission, is ESA’s first interplanetary mission jointly undertaken with the Russian space agency Roscosmos.
Schiaparelli took off for Mars in March aboard a Russian rocket together with the Trace Gas Orbiter.
The orbiter, which also has NASA-made instruments on board, will act as a radio relay for future missions from the surface of Mars, as well as analyze methane and other gases in the atmosphere.
Methane is created by biological or geological activity and breaks down within a few hundred years once it reaches the atmosphere, suggesting there is biological or geological activity on Mars now or in the recent past.
The prospect of finding even microscopic organisms on Mars has excited scientists for some time, but so far none has been discovered.
Jan Woerner, the head of ESA, insisted that the mission should still be considered a success because the mother ship had been placed in orbit around Mars as planned.
While the fate of Schiaparelli remained unclear, Woerner noted that it was always meant to be a test for a future rover mission.
The data gleaned from the lander’s descent will be crucial for helping scientists avoid a repeat of the Beagle 2 mission 13 years ago, said ESA’s spacecraft operations manager, Andrea Accomazzo.
If we hadn’t obtained that data it would have been a total waste … It’s fundamental that we understand what went wrong.
All hope is not lost for Schiaparelli, though, said Accomazzo.
“We cannot exclude that (it) is safe on the surface and might be in a position to transmit, but I would judge it unlikely.”
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Backing politicians into a corner of having to tell the truth, you bet they were unhappy.
Actually this forced a hand, and it just might have been the wrong move.
Good for Germany, not so good for Ireland.
Compare Syrizas negotiation tactics with our reactionary panic at that time.
Forced whose hand?
Central banker refused to play politics, fair play.
The Central Bank had a press release issued before the bailout was agreed on !
it makes it look like they had Fianna fail politicians over a barrel – and the Annsbacher document sits on Richard Bruton’s desk !
Before it was signed you say? My god, why oh why would the CB do such a thing? If only there was an article outlining the president of that CB’s reasons for making the announcement early that we could reference for justification, it might have had something to do with trying to stop a run on the banks for all we know. Alas, we remain in the dark until such an article can be located.
The evidence was given by a Civil servant in the Inquiry yesterday Egg ..
a lot of smoke often leads to a lot of daggers !
@ Hermes:
The evidence (see link below) said that they DRAFTED a press release just before the bank guarantee was agreed in 2008.
There was no mention of a press release concerning the bailout, which happened two years later in 2010.
He’s actually playing politics now. Political rule #1 Cover your ass at the expense of others.
Something strikes me about Honohan, self preservation syndrome to the fore. hunts with the hounds, runs with the fox.
He is just another arrogant professor who thinks more of his fame and notoriety than having any real ability other than appearing in public with his lines prepared is the way I see him !
Honohan has been the first truly independent Central Bank Governor. His predecessors all came from the Department of Finance and so were never truly independent.
I hope his successor is just as independent and doesn’t come from the Civil Service.
@ Hermes: You never have a good word to say about anyone. Patrick Honohan has done the state some service, more than you have I’d hasten to add.
Brian lenihan was bluffing on behalf of the Irish tax payer by insisting we wouldn’t accept a bailout unless we got a good deal. But then been the banker that he is Honohan sold the country down the river by revealing on radio that we would be accepting a bailout. Patrick Honohan probably cost us a couple of billion in reality but the media think he’s a great lad cause he’s a “strait talker” don’t you know. Idiots
The bailout was already done.
Lenihan spent 18 months at the start of the crisis doing nothing but going out.
Cowen went in to a black place and hid there.
Lenihan went around telling the global media that Ireland could not have a bank run because we were an Island.
I don’t think the man was mentally up to the job or aware of the problems. He seemed to be very aware though when it came to creating legislation that allowed bankrupt developers clean out their bank accounts in Anglo, against the advice of his Dept.
He was very aware when he paid all junior bondholders and never informed the cabinet.
Maybe Lenihan was such a good bluffer that he convinced everyone who worked with him or dealt with Ireland when he was Finance Minister that he hadn’t a clue what he was doing.
Saw a real expert on the tv the other night talking about this. He said none of the politicians on the PAC are experts on economics, finance or banking. Therefore they’re not asking the right questions and not doing a good job of extraction valuable information from the guys they’re questioning. I know they’ll say they’re saving millions by not having a tribunal, but this is the other extreme, and if its not done properly, they’ll have just wasted, i dunno how many months sitting in that room asking tom, dick and harry pointless questions, when they could have been doing something more productive for the country. It’ll probably conclude just before the next election and it’ll be all FFs fault.
STFU with this bull , when is someone going to do jail time is all I want to know .
You should go to the Guards with your evidence of laws having been broken.
He might like to explain how there was a “Press release” from the Central Bank issued confirming the Bailout – before the bailout had been agreed by Our elected Government !
The Central bank is badly exposed in a criminal sense on this one !
Lenihan and the Govt. thought that if they kept the electorate in the dark that they could get away with anything.
I think it’s amazing that so many commentators on here know more that professors or others experts in their own fields.
I’d go so far as to say you don’t know enough to know that you know nothing.
Kevin Cardiff did very well out of it, he shafted a guy to get the job.
Honohan was only doing what HE was told. His role is subordinated the that of the chairman of the ECB so he was doing what was prudent in the circumstances of the time not to spook the poor citizens, play along knowing full well the bailout etc would all follow.
He like most was wondering were Cowan and Lenihan really across this?
Did they fully understand it all?
Why else was he up all night ruminating on what to announce to the nation if he didn’t feel the boys being paid to to the job were nit actually up for it ?
He may come out of it looking like a smug banker/professor type but that’s because he knew what was going down as did another Professor Morgan!
You had an army of enthusiastic amateurs lining up to gain say them but if course they were never truly impartial
Did Ahern not mention “suicide” at one stage and he was the guy at the top !
The whole thing is so tragic and would be laughable if not so serious but Honohan and his reputation will be secure unlike Cowen Lenihan et al
No doubt Mary o rourke will be on the airwaves tomorrow trying to protect Brian lenihans legacy
Would there be a bank run, if Greece exits? Only asking, because I don’t know.
have your say