Posted on 10/21/2016 2:24:09 PM PDT by BenLurkin
The lander, named Schiaparelli, stopped communicating with mission control about 1 minute before its planned touchdown on Mars Wednesday morning (Oct. 19). Newly released photos of the landing site by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) seem to confirm what ExoMars team members had suspected — that Schiaparelli died a violent death.
The photos show a bright feature consistent with the lander's 39-foot-wide (12 meters) parachute, as well as a 50-by-130-foot (15 by 40 m) dark patch likely created by the lander's impact, ESA officials said.
"Estimates are that Schiaparelli dropped from a height of between 2 and 4 kilometers [1.2 to 2.5 miles], therefore impacting at a considerable speed, greater than 300 km/h [186 mph]," ESA officials wrote in an update today (Oct. 21).
"The relatively large size of the feature would then arise from disturbed surface material," they added. "It is also possible that the lander exploded on impact, as its thruster propellant tanks were likely still full. These preliminary interpretations will be refined following further analysis."
ExoMars team members think those tanks were still full because Schiaparelli's data indicate that the lander didn't fire its descent-slowing thrusters nearly as long as it was supposed to, ESA officials have said.
(Excerpt) Read more at space.com ...
You only think they screwed up. Actually, they planned to do that. However, the reason is a secret.
Well great. Now the Martians think we’re attacking them.
DAMN!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Here I thought Sheila Jackson Lee would be vindicated...
Well, she can still hang her hat next to the 400 year old US Constitution or tell us again how North & South Vietnam are comingling...
She is REALLY dumber than I or any of us think.
She should run for Pres.....
Would be a shoo in...hits the trifecta
Black
Female
AMAZINGLY STUPID
Hypergolic.
...they would just evaporate as long as they didn’t “touch” at the right percentages.
The common fuel used is a mixture of different types of Hydrazine. The oxidizer is DiNitrogen Tetroxide, N2O4, more commonly known as Nitrogen Tetroxide.
When placed in contact with each other at any percentage or concentration they will burn and the specific impulse is quite large, which is why they are used as the fuel and oxidizer.
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