Nasa Images and Landing Time

fate: But contact with the vehicle was lost around 50 seconds before the expected landing time, leaving its fate uncertain until the NASA images were received. "Schiaparelli reached the ground with a velocity that was much higher than it should have been — several hundred kilometres per hour — and was then unfortunately destroyed by the impact," Exo Mars flight director Michel Denis said, according to Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It was only the second European attempt to land a craft on Mars, after a failed mission by the British landing craft Beagle 2 in 2003. Key points:Images suggest Schiaparelli landing was accompanied by an explosion Schiaparelli mothership will still sniff out methane and other gases that might indicate the presence of lifeNASA orbiter will provide clearer images of crash site camera next week The disc-shaped, 577-kilogram Schiaparelli probe, part of the Russian-European Exo Mars program to search for evidence of life on Mars, descended from a height of up to 4 kilometres on Wednesday to test technologies for a rover that scientists hope to send to the surface of the planet in 2020. The US space agency Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, which has been circling the planet for about 10 years, took low-resolution pictures that show a bright spot that ESA believes is the 12-metre parachute that Schiaparelli used to slow down. ESA said it was possible that Schiaparelli landing was accompanied by an explosion, as its thrusters' fuel tanks were probably still full. Photo: Schiaparelli crashed and did not use its thrusters for a soft Mars landing, scientists believe They also show a fuzzy dark patch, around 15 by 40 metres in size, about 1 kilometre north of the parachute, which scientists interpret as having been created by the impact of the lander following a longer-than-planned free fall. (news.financializer.com). As reported in the news.