The European Space Agency's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) arrived at Mars on October 19, 2016, three days after releasing the Schiaparelli Lander on a ballistic trajectory to Meridiani Planum. During the separation event, and subsequently during Schiaparelli's Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL), the NASA-provided Electra Ultra-High Frequency (UHF) payload onboard TGO was used to record signals from the Schiaparelli Lander for post-processing on the ground to recover both tracking of the lander's carrier signal and reconstruction of the lander's 8 kb/s telemetry. In addition, ESA's Mars Express orbiter recorded the Schiaparelli signal, with ground post-processing providing independent tracking of the lander carrier signal, and the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope near Pune, India was configured to provide real-time detection of the lander carrier signal. While an anomaly in the latter stages of EDL led to loss of the lander, these critical event data sets, and in particular the telemetry reconstruction enabled by the TGO Electra recording, proved essential in enabling detailed diagnosis of the anomaly. While the loss of the lander during EDL precluded the planned surface relay operations, the preparations for that activity provide important lessons learned for future Mars relay support scenarios.


    Access

    Check access

    Check availability in my library

    Order at Subito €


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    Relay communications support to the ExoMars Schiaparelli lander




    Publication date :

    2017-03-01


    Size :

    2939866 byte




    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English



    Relay Communications Support to the ExoMars Schiaparelli Lander

    Edwards, Charles D., Jr. / Asmar, Sami / Bruvold, Kristoffer N. et al. | NTRS | 2017


    Relay communications support to the ExoMars Schiaparelli Lander

    Montagna, Mario / Winton, Alistair / Bayle, Olivier et al. | NTRS | 2017


    Direct-to-Earth radio link from the Exomars Schiaparelli Lander

    Ferri, Francesca / Karatekin, Ozgur / Edwards, Chad et al. | NTRS | 2017


    Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Navigation Strategy for the ExoMars Schiaparelli EDM Lander Mission

    Schulze, William B. / Lee, Kyong J. / Graat, Eric et al. | NTRS | 2017


    Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter navigation strategy for the ExoMars Schiaparelli EDM lander mission

    Schulze, William B. / Lee, Kyong J. / Graat, Eric J. et al. | NTRS | 2017