Spotlight on Schiaparelli’s landing site
Schiaparelli, the Entry, Descent and Landing Demonstrator Module of the joint ESA/Roscosmos ExoMars 2016 mission, will target the Meridiani Planum region for its October landing.
The landing ellipse, measuring 100 x 15 km, is located close to the equator, in the southern highlands of Mars. The region was chosen based on its relatively flat and smooth characteristics, as indicated in the topography map, in order to satisfy landing safety requirements for Schiaparelli.
NASA’s Opportunity rover also landed within this ellipse near Endurance crater in Meridiani Planum, in 2004, and has been exploring the 22 km-wide Endeavour crater for the last five years. Endeavour lies just outside the south-eastern extent of Schiaparelli’s landing ellipse.
The region has also been well studied from orbit and is shown to host clay sediments and sulphates that were likely formed in the presence of water.
Article:
http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/Mars_Express/Spotlight_on_Schiaparelli_s_landing_site
Video: ESA/DLR/FU Berlin, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
http://www.esa.int/spaceinvideos/Videos/2016/08/Flyover_of_Schiaparelli_landing_ellipse
#esa #roscosmos #schiaparelli #mars #space #science #exomars2016
Looking forward to yet another beautiful interesting mission.
ReplyDeleteThe landing spot might seem pretty large but in reality it is quite a precision landing. Imagine throwing a dart from a moving car into a moving target. The closest distance Earth-Mars is 56 million km, but things get complicated as planets are moving around the Sun, and rotating at the same time. Even the light takes an average of 13 minutes to do the trip.
13 min's for the light? ummm...interesting, at least darkness is already there.
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