By Vania Raebel | October 4, 2019
Lander Remnants
In October of 2016, the Schiaparelli lander of the European Space Agency’s ExoMars mission accidentally crash-landed on Mars. The lander was launched together with the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter on March 14, 2016. As the Schiaparelli lander was about to arrive on Mars, telemetry signals were suddenly lost.
This photo of the crash site was taken by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to assist ESA investigators in finding out what happened to the poor lander. That dark round spot zoomed in on is the site where the lander crashed. The front heat shield, as well as the parachute and the rear heat shield, are also visible in the image.
