Did it crash or land? Search on for Europe's Mars craft

October 20, 2016 23:38

Europe's second attempt to reach Mars' surface appeared in peril today as initial analysis suggested the latest lander may have plummeted to its demise.

While holding out faint hope, ground controllers said it seemed the paddling pool-sized lander's parachute may have been discarded too early, and its fall-breaking thrusters switched off too soon.

The lander, dubbed Schiaparelli, was on a test-run for a future rover that will seek out evidence of life, past or present, on the Red Planet.

But it fell silent seconds before its scheduled touchdown, while its mothership Trace Gas Orbiter entered Mars' orbit as planned -- part of a joint European-Russian project.

"We are not in a position yet to determine the dynamic condition at which the lander touched the ground," European Space Agency head of solar and planetary missions Andrea Accomazzo told a webcast news briefing at mission control in Darmstadt, Germany.

Further analysis must be done of some 600 megabytes of data the 230 million-euro (USD 251-million) craft sent home before its signal died, to "know whether it survived structurally or not."

This could take "some time", Accomazzo added.

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