Did the ExoMars Mission Narrowly Escape a Launch Disaster? | Hacker News Reader

Did the ExoMars Mission Narrowly Escape a Launch Disaster?

popularmechanics.com

35 pointsmholt14 comments

I wonder if there's enough data to reconstruct the demise of the upper stage. Re-entry physics is extremely interesting and complex. ESA has a number of articles on the analysis of the re-entry of the GOCE satellite [1]. There are a couple of tools that are considered the defacto standards for computing high-altitude re-entry physics like SCARAB and ORSAT [2].

A colleague of mine working in the same EU project as me [3] is developing an open-source tool that can switch between low- and high-fidelity computations [4].

Wonder if any of the observations recorded are valuable to calibrate these models.

[1] http://blogs.esa.int/rocketscience/tag/re-entry/

[2] http://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=20100005304

[3] http://www.stardust2013.eu

[4] http://www.congrexprojects.com/Custom/15A01/Presentations/Au...

In some ways it's a relief that ExoMars' sensors will take weeks to commission; it's got cameras on board, including one which was intended to be able to take 5m/pixel images of Mars' surface from orbit. Pointing this at what's left of the upper stage could well produce some rather interesting data.

It'd also require ExoMars to be extensively reprogrammed at very short notice and risk bricking it, which is not something you want to do with a critical part of a billion-euro science program...

Isn't that stage on a escape trajectory?

The upper stage gets left behind in Earth orbit. The Briz-M stage provides the kick to propel the payload to a higher orbit and then usually there's a kick motor that follows up, in this case, delivering a Trans-Mars Injection maneuver to set the spacecraft on its way to Mars.

EDIT: Actually realised I'm wrong since the Briz-M is the 4th stage, not the 3rd. The 3rd stage remains in orbit and then splashes down and the 4th stage actually provides the entire kick for TMI [1]

[1] http://blogs.esa.int/rocketscience/2016/03/13/why-exomars-ri...

Saw some diagram and it seems after the kick it has an additional burn to get it into a graveyard orbit instead of goong to mars along the payload. Maybe that burn which failed

The blog post I linked to in my previous comment suggests differently. Do you happen to know where you saw that diagram? Since I'm working on space debris, I'm curious what the target graveyard orbit is if it's not escaping.

Not an actual flight path http://www.russianspaceweb.com/images/spacecraft/planetary/m...

It always impress me how much it is difficult to track things in space, so that still in 2016 we may not have an idea of what is happening up there...

Some better info here on the incident and more details on the venting issue with the Briz-M stage:

Ok, we changed the URL to that. Thanks! It isn't obvious which is better, but since the other URL (http://russianspaceweb.com/exomars2016-eop.html) triggered a useless discussion, perhaps we'll have better luck with this one.

Hint: everything in the current thread is marked off-topic, so if anyone would care to seed a new discussion with something substantive, that'd be grand.

I hope the author likes the taste of polonium in his coffee.

Please don't do this here.

The USSR hasn't received approval from the IPTA to fly and land on Mars.

IPTA = Intragalatic Planetary Travel Association

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