European Mars lander suffers parachute damage in test
The 35-meter main parachute for the ExoMars 2020 lander in an earlier test. In a high-altitude test in May, two large parachutes suffered tears after deployment. Credit: ESA
TITUSVILLE, Fla. — Development of a European-Russian Mars lander hit a setback when the spacecraft’s parachutes malfunctioned in a recent test, but project officials said they still have time to correct the problem before its launch in a year.
In a June 28 statement, the European Space Agency said that two parachutes suffered “unexpected damage” during a high-altitude test a month earlier in Sweden of the system that will slow down the ExoMars 2020 lander.
The lander makes use of two main parachutes, each deployed with the assistance of a smaller pilot parachute. The first parachute, 15 meters in diameter, is deployed when the descending spacecraft is traveling at supersonic speeds in the thin Martian atmosphere. It is released and the second parachute, 35 meters across, is deployed once the spacecraft slows to subsonic speeds.
A May 28 test of the parachute system used a high-altitude balloon above the Swedish Space Corporation’s Esrange test site in northern Sweden. The test was intended to demonstrate the end-to-end performance of the entire system, including both the pilot and main chutes as well as the mortars used to extract the pilot chutes.
ESA said that the first main parachute suffered several radial tears in its fabric, all occurring before reaching its maximum load. The second main parachute also suffered a single tear, also before peak loading.
The other parts of the parachute system worked as expected, and ESA said “a good level of the expected aerodynamic drag was nevertheless achieved” despite the damage sustained by the parachutes. However, the agency acknowledged that the problem needs to be understood and corrected prior to the mission’s launch in one year.
“We will implement design improvements to the parachute bags to ensure smoother extraction of the parachute, as well as reinforcements to the parachute itself to limit tear propagation in case some would still occur,” said Francois Spoto, ExoMars team leader, in a statement. “The complex process of folding and packing the parachutes and hundreds of lines will also be examined.”
Two additional tests of the parachute system are planned for later this year, but the agency didn’t state when those tests would take place and what the planned corrective actions would do to the schedule. “We are working harder than ever to keep on track for our launch window next year,” Spoto said.
ExoMars 2020 features a Russian-built landing platform, called Kazachok, that will bring to surface the European rover Rosalind Franklin. Kazachok arrived in Italy in March for payload integration activities with a separate European-built cruise stage, while technicians are installing instruments on the rover in the U.K. The integrated spacecraft will be shipped to Kazakhstan for launch on a Proton rocket in July 2020.
The spacecraft will land on Mars in March 2021, likely in a region of the planet called Oxia Planum. If that landing is successful, the solar-powered rover will then explore the surface, equipped with scientific instruments and a drill capable of sampling material up to two meters below the surface to look for evidence of life.
ExoMars 2020 is ESA’s second attempt to land a spacecraft on Mars. In October 2016, ESA’s Schiaparelli spacecraft attempted a landing on Mars to test entry, descent and landing technologies, but crashed into the surface. An investigation concluded that a software problem caused the lander to prematurely shut down its landing thrusters while still several kilometers above the surface.
A British-built lander, Beagle 2, was flown on ESA’s Mars Express mission, but was not heard from after landing in December 2003. Images of the landing site taken by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter more than a decade later suggest the spacecraft landed intact, but was unable to deploy all its solar panels or its communications antenna.
ESA currently has no Mars landers planned after Mars 2020. The agency is considering participating in a NASA-led Mars sample return effort that will start with NASA’s Mars 2020 rover, which will cache samples for later return to Earth. ESA, in one concept, would provide a “fetch rover” on a later NASA lander that would collect the Mars 2020 samples and load them into a Mars ascent vehicle to place them into orbit. An ESA orbiter would then collect that sample canister and return it to Earth.
NASA and ESA signed July 2 a “statement of intent” regarding the science benefits of a joint Mars sample return mission, although the agencies released few additional details about that statement. ESA plans to seek approval from its member states to pursue a role on a Mars sample return mission at its “Space19+” ministerial meeting in November.
Quelle: SN
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Update: 13.08.2019
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PARACHUTE TROUBLES FOR EXOMARS 2020, WITH LAUNCH LESS THAN A YEAR AWAY
The ExoMars 2020 project suffered another parachute test failure last week. The European-Russian mission to land a rover on Mars is scheduled for launch next summer, so time is running short for the international team to solve whatever is causing the parachutes to rip apart during high altitude drop tests. Despite all the buzz about sending humans to Mars, just trying to land robotic probes continues to demonstrate the challenges involved.
The European Space Agency (ESA) and the Russian state space corporation Roscosmos are partners in the ExoMars (Exobiology on Mars) project. The first portion of the project launched in 2016: the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and the Schiaparelli experimental lander. TGO successfully reached orbit and continues to send back data and serve as a communications relay between Earth and two NASA spacecraft on the surface (Curiosity and InSight).
Schiaparelli, however, crashed on landing. The problem was not parachutes in that case, but bad data from an inertial measurement unit. Its purpose was to gain experience in preparation for the ExoMars 2020 lander/rover combination. Roscosmos and Russia’s Space Research Institute (IKI) are responsible for the lander, named Kazachok. ESA is responsible for the rover, named Rosalind Franklin after the renowned British chemist who contributed to unraveling the double helix structure of DNA. The rover is being built by Airbus Defence and Space in Stevenage, UK.
ESA also is responsible for the carrier and descent modules that will deliver the lander and rover to Mars.
Illustration of ESA’s ExoMars 2020 robotic rover, Rosalind Franklin. Credit: ESA
The United States is the only country to land on Mars repeatedly — eight of nine attempts since 1976 have been successful. Every time, NASA stresses how difficult it is, however, especially the entry-descent-and-landing (EDL) sequence where the spacecraft enters the Martian atmosphere and must slow down enough to land safely. There are several methods for the landing itself, but parachutes are critical during descent. NASA coined the phrase “seven minutes of terror” to describe the EDL process for the Curiosity rover that arrived at Mars in 2012. NASA’s Mars 2020 mission will use the same profile.
The ExoMars 2020 EDL process is different from Curiosity’s, but still challenging. The descent module will have two sets of parachutes, each comprised of a drogue chute and a main chute. The main parachute has a diameter of 35 meters, the largest for any Mars mission according to ESA.
The main parachute deployed properly last year during a test where it was dropped from a helicopter at an altitude of 1.2 kilometers. But on May 28, all four parachutes were dropped from a stratospheric balloon at an altitude of 29 kilometers. Both main parachute canopies suffered damage.
Illustration of ExoMars 2020 parachute deployment sequence. Credit: ESA
Design changes were implemented and a second test of the main parachute was conducted on August 5, but similar damage was observed. Francois Spoto, ESA’s ExoMars Team Leader, said it was “disappointing,” but the team remains focused on finding and fixing “the flaw in order to launch next year.”
The launch window is July 25 – August 13, 2020, with Mars arrival in March 2021. Earth and Mars are aligned properly only every 26 months to permit direct launches from one to the other and some windows are better than others. Russia will launch the spacecraft on a Proton rocket.
NASA is providing an astrobiology instrument for the rover — Mars Organic Molecule Analyzer (MOMA). Originally NASA intended to be a major partner in ExoMars, but had to withdraw when the Obama Administration proposed deep cuts to NASA’s planetary exploration program. Russia stepped in to replace the United States as ESA’s primary partner. NASA later decided to build Mars 2020 using some of Curiosity’s backup hardware and new scientific instruments.
Russia has launched a number of missions to Mars since the 1960s, mostly orbiters, but it sent landers at least four times. Mars 2 and 3 were orbiter/lander combinations, Mars 5 and 6 were flyby/landers. Only one, Mars 3, survived the trip to the surface. It transmitted data for just 20 seconds before falling silent.
ESA’s Mars Express orbiter, launched in 2003, took along a very small (2-meter diameter) British-built lander, Beagle 2. It separated from Mars Express, but contact was lost after its scheduled landing. Its fate remained unknown until 2015 when it was discovered in images from a high resolution camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. It landed intact, but was unable to communicate because solar panels did not deploy properly.
NASA’s Mars 2020 and ExoMars 2020 will have company. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and China also are planning missions. The UAE’s Hope is an orbiter. China plans to launch an orbiter/rover, but it requires China’s new Long March 5 rocket, which has not yet returned to flight after a 2017 failure.
Quelle: SpacePolicyOnline.com
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Update: 14.08.2019
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Europe and Russia Have ExoMars Parachute Problems. It Could Threaten the 2020 Mars Launch
There’s concern that the European-Russian ExoMars 2020 mission could become ExoMars 2022.
The issue involves parachute testing and a series of snags encountering while trying to flight-qualify the descent system. The ExoMars team continues to troubleshoot the parachute design following an unsuccessful high-altitude drop test last week.
The coming ExoMars mission comprises a life-hunting rover named Rosalind Franklin and a surface science platform called Kazachok, which are scheduled to launch next summer and touch down on the Red Planet in March 2021.
If the mission misses the 2020 launch window, it would have to wait until at least 2022 for its next opportunity to lift off. (Launch windows for Mars missions open just once every 26 months.)
Oh, chute!
Several ExoMars parachute tests have been conducted at a Swedish Space Corporation site, European Space Agency (ESA) officials wrote in a statementyesterday (Aug. 12).
The first such test took place last year. It involved the largest main parachute, which is 115 feet (35 meters) wide — bigger than any chute that's ever flown on a Mars mission. A helicopter dropped the chute from an altitude of 0.7 miles (1.2 kilometers), and the parachute successfully deployed and inflated, ESA officials said.
But two subsequent tests did not go so well.
"On May 28 this year, the deployment sequence of all four parachutes was tested for the first time from a height of 29 km [18 miles] — released from a stratospheric helium balloon," ESA officials wrote in the statement. "While the deployment mechanisms activated correctly, and the overall sequence was completed, both main parachute canopies suffered damage."
The ExoMars team made some changes to the parachute system's design before the next high-altitude test on Aug. 5, which focused just on the 115-foot-wide chute. The results were similar to the previous trial: the initial steps were completed correctly, but the chute suffered canopy damage before inflation. The test module ended up descending only under the drag of a small pilot chute, ESA officials said.
"It is disappointing that the precautionary design adaptations introduced following the anomalies of the last test have not helped us to pass the second test successfully, but as always we remain focused and are working to understand and correct the flaw in order to launch next year," ESA ExoMars team leader Francois Spoto said in the statement.
The team plans to conduct another high-altitude test of the big main parachute before the end of 2019. The next qualification attempt of the second main parachute is then anticipated for early 2020.
Sizes of key components of the ExoMars 2020 mission.
(Image credit: ESA)
Trying to understand the problem
There aren't many opportunities to conduct additional full-scale, high-altitude drop tests. So, ExoMars teams are also considering building more parachute test models and performing ground-based simulations to better understand the complicated, dynamic process of parachute extraction, ESA officials said.
ESA and NASA experts convene regularly to exchange ideas about space science and technology. In addition to those forums, Mars parachute specialists will convene at a workshop next month in an attempt to fix the issues.
Time running short
The coming ExoMars mission has a far more complex parachute decelerator system than those used for NASA's Mars missions.
Whether ExoMars is experiencing a parachute problem or other things associated with the parachute system is not clear.
And with time running short, ESA/NASA discussions can be muddled due to Technical Assistance Agreement (TAA) and International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) rules and regulations.
NASA nail-biting
On the NASA side, the Mars Exploration Rover (MER) project — Spirit and Opportunity — went through similar nail-biting as parachute drop-testing at California's China Lake encountered problems. A chute redesign was needed, along with use of the National Full-Scale Aerodynamics Complex (NFAC) at NASA's Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley.
NASA’s mega-parachute for the Curiosity Mars rover mission underwent a total of six different tests between October 2007 and April 2009 within the NFAC. That parachute had 80 suspension lines, measured more than 165 feet (50 m) long, and opened to a diameter of nearly 51 feet (16 meters).
Spirit, Opportunity and Curiosity all landed safely on Mars. Curiosity touched down in August 2012, and Spirit and Opportunity landed a few weeks apart in January 2004.
The European-Russian ExoMars program consists of two phases. The first phase launched the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) and a landing demonstrator called Schiaparelli in March 2016. TGO reached Mars orbit safely, but Schiaparelli crashed during its landing attempt in October 2016 because of a data glitch.
Rosalind Franklin and Kazachok represent the second phase of ExoMars. Europe built the rover, while Russia is supplying the Kazachok lander.
NASA plans to launch a life-hunting rover to the Red Planet next summer as well. The Mars 2020 rover is based heavily off Curiosity and will employ the latter's descent system, which depended on parachutes and a rocket-powered sky crane.
Quelle: SC
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Update: 21.08.2019
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ALL INSTRUMENTS ONBOARD ROSALIND FRANKLIN ROVER
PanCam mast fitted to ExoMars rover
20 August 2019
The full suite of scientific instruments, including cameras that will give us our eyes on Mars, the drill that will retrieve pristine soil samples from below the surface, and the onboard laboratory that will seek out signs of life are all installed on the ExoMars rover.
The rover, named after the pioneering scientist Rosalind Franklin, is part of the ESA-Roscosmos ExoMars programme, and is nearing completion at Airbus Defence and Space, Stevenage, UK. The rover is now seen with its recently added PanCam, which sits on top of a mast that rises 2 m above the ground. PanCam will be fundamental in the day-to-day scientific operations of the rover to assist with scientific decisions on where to drive and drill.
Determining whether life ever existed on the Red Planet, or still does today, is at the heart of the ExoMars programme. While spacecraft exploring Mars in the last decades have shown that the surface is dry and barren, billions of years ago it was much more reminiscent of Earth, with water flowing in rivers and lakes, perhaps seas. If life ever began in this very early period, scientists think that the best chances to find evidence for it is to look underground, in ancient regions of Mars that were once influenced by water.
PanCam test image
The Rosalind Franklin rover will land in what scientists think might have been an ancient ocean, close to the boundary where channels from the southern highlands of Mars connect to the smooth northern lowlands. After the initially wet era in the planet’s early history, lavas from volcanic eruptions covered large areas of Mars, some resisting erosion until today. This means that the landing site’s underlying materials may only have been exposed recently, initially protecting them from space radiation and later making them accessible to the rover and its analytical tools.
PanCam, with its stereo and high-resolution cameras will provide detailed views of geologically interesting features in visible and near-infrared wavelengths, and together with measurements made by the spectrometers, will tell us what the rocks are made of and if they were influenced by water in the past. In select locations the drill will retrieve samples from up to 2 m below the surface, delivering them to the onboard science laboratoryfor detailed analysis to sniff out signs of biological signatures.
Close-up imager up close
A camera on the bottom of the drill unit will provide close-up images of the soil that is churned out by the drilling action. When the drill is in ‘stowed’ position the camera will be able to image the area in front of the rover. The close-up imager, or Clupi recently underwent final calibration tests at ESA’s technical facility in the Netherlands, before being shipped to Stevenage to be attached to the drill unit.
In addition to the cameras, spectrometers, drill and analytical lab, the rover also has sub-surface sounding radar and neutron detector.
“Our rover has really taken shape,” says Jorge Vago, ESA’s ExoMars rover project scientist. “We have an incredibly powerful scientific payload to explore the surface and subsurface of Mars on our quest to find biosignatures.”
With the scientific suite of instruments onboard, the rover is sealed up in a dedicated cleanroom. Once final checks have been completed, the rover will be transported from the UK to Toulouse, France. There it will undergo environmental testing to confirm it is ready for the conditions on Mars. Once complete it will move on to Cannes, France for final integration with the lander platform, named Kazachok, and with the descent module and carrier module that will transport the mission from Earth to Mars.
The mission is foreseen for launch in just under a year from now (the launch window is 26 July–13 August 2020) on a Russian Proton-M launcher, arriving at Mars in March 2021.
Notes to editors The ExoMars programme is a joint endeavour between ESA and Roscosmos. In addition to the 2020 mission, it also includes the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) launched in 2016. The TGO is already both delivering important scientific results of its own and relaying data from NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover and Insight lander. It will also relay the data from the 2020 mission once it arrives at Mars.
