European Spacecraft Prepares to Land on Mars Next Week | Hacker News Reader

European Spacecraft Prepares to Land on Mars Next Week

space.com

95 pointsnedsma6 comments

Kinda sad to see that it does not have any cameras apart from the landing camera.

Rosetta just captured the imagination of loads of people, yet this one will be a yawn-a-thon for the average member of the public without pictures.

I am sure the science will be great, just us Luddites like pretty pictures :-)

The landing sequence appears less complex and risky than the skycrane solution for Curiosity. Does anyone know what the tradeoffs between the two options are?

Curiosity weighs 900 kg. NASA decided that it was too heavy for retrorockets (which would kick up too much dust and create holes in the ground around the rover) and so large (almost 3 meters across) that airbags would be too heavy [1].

Schiaparelli weighs 600 kg, closer to the size of the old Viking landers (576 kg), which did fine with retrorockets.

[1] https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2012/3...

Why is this touted as a European (only) mission?

It's a joint mission with Roscosmos they built the lander (ESA is building the rover and probe) and the rocket is Russian.

From another article: http://www.space.com/32254-exomars-mars-mission-launches-orb...

> But these instruments will likely operate for just a few days, until Schiaparelli's batteries run out. The probe's primary purpose is to prove out the entry, descent and landing technology needed to get the life-hunting ExoMars rover on the ground several years from now.

It seems crazy that they're shipping this thing all the way to Mars to get just a few days of data, and then to let it rust forever on the surface.

I agree, it seems like the marginal cost of making it a longer-lived and more powerful rover are low once you've gone to the trouble of putting 600 kg on the surface of Mars. Worth noting, though, that this mission is also putting a satellite into orbit.

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