Lost in space. ESA determined the cause of the crash “Schiaparelli” – RIA Novosti

18:1223.11.2016

(updated: 18:44 23.11.2016)

4551518

MOSCOW, November 23 – RIA Novosti. a Formal investigation of the European space Agency showed that the “Schiaparelli” dropped due to gross errors in the software. A failure in the speed sensor caused the lender to believe that he is under the surface of Mars, reports the website of the space Agency.

on Wednesday 19 October, a joint Russian-European mission “Eczemas-TGO” arrived to the red planet and tried to solve two critical tasks – the output TGO of the probe into a stable orbit Mars and landing demonstration lander “Schiaparelli” on the plateau of Meridian at the equator of the red planet.

Landing lander, as we now know, was unsuccessful – it was decided that the module has already landed. It made “the list” to turn off the engine after only 3-4 seconds after their inclusion. As a result, he fell from a height of 3-4 km, at exactly the point where he had to get to Mars. The alleged cause was called a failure in the radar altimeter.

Engineers ESA analyzed the data part of the telemetry that “Schiaparelli” transmitted to TGO during the process of landing on Mars, and found that the story was more complicated than initially thought by scientists, but the radar in it’s really involved.

the Flight, as scientists tell us, took place normally in the first stages of planting – “Schiaparelli” is correctly slowed, dropped to a height of 12 kilometers from the surface of Mars, slowing down to the speed of 1730 kilometers per hour and dropping parachutes. The altitude of 7.8 km was correctly discarded heat shield. Some time after this, something happened that destroyed the probe.

it Turned out that the fatal error in the work of “Schiaparelli” was not due to a failure of the altimeter, and because of the problems of the other navigation device, a so – called “measure of inertia” (IMU), the device measuring the speed of rotation of the module around its axis.

Data from this device, as explained by the engineers, were taken into account when processing the data on the flight altitude received from the radar “Schiaparelli”. At one point in the work of the IMU failed, with the result that he “measured” the abnormally high speed rotation of the lender, which went beyond acceptable values. Such failures are the norm in the work of the inertial sensors, and usually for their suppression scientists “smooth” the signal and compare the data for the current point with the results obtained in previous moments of time.

But in this case the IMU provided data on the main computer “Schiaparelli” suddenly for a long time through seconds that “cheated” module and forced it to consider these measurements are real data, and not an anomaly. Incorrect values were taken into account when calculating the height of the module, causing the onboard computer “Schiaparelli” got negative values for the height.

in Other words, the module felt that it is not even on the surface of Mars, and under it, which caused him to initiate the final stage of this procedure, to separate the parachutes and shut down the engines.

This error, as the researchers note, is of a purely programmatic nature and it can easily be reproduced in computer simulations of the landing, “Schiaparelli”. As noted by David Parker (David Parker), head of manned flights and robotic space exploration at ESA, the data and the error will be taken into account in the design for the landing platform the Rover “Pasteur”, which is being developed at NPO Lavochkin.