Schiaparelli Crash Photos: Full-Color Images Depict ESA Mars Lander Crash As It Happened

Dramatic color photos from the European Space Agency released earlier this week reveal the tragic Schiaparelli crash in full detail, as the ESA Mars lander blew up into pieces and marked a big setback for the ExoMars 2016 mission.

This isn’t the first time photos of the crash were released to the public, as black-and-white images have since emerged following the October 19 event. But the new color photos provide a much clearer picture of the crash as it happened. A report from Business Insider reiterates how Schiaparelli crashed more than two weeks ago, surviving a troublesome re-entry into Mars’ atmosphere, but ultimately meeting its end due to an “unknown” computer glitch.

.@NASA’s MRO @HiRISE returns colour image of #ExoMars @ESA_EDM on surface of #Mars. More details revealed: https://t.co/AY48Akq48C pic.twitter.com/l9xH4eBjKk

— ESA (@esa) November 3, 2016

The images were taken on November 1 by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), which used its High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera to colorize the original black-and-white photos. A press release from ESA adds perspective to the Mars lander crash, as it explains the nuances on the new images that weren’t previously evident on the earlier shots.

“For example, a number of the bright white spots around the dark region interpreted as the impact site are confirmed as real objects – they are not likely to be imaging ‘noise’ – and therefore are most likely fragments of Schiaparelli.”

“Interestingly, a bright feature can just be made out in the place where the dark crater was identified in last week’s image. This may be associated with the module, but the images so far are not conclusive.”

Business Insider explained in its report that the primary dark blob on the Schiaparelli crash photos may be about 80 feet long, or about the combined length of two city buses. The other dark area found on the upper right of the colorized photos extends about 110 to 120 feet long, or more than the length of two semi trucks next to each other. Also shown on the photos are the lander’s parachute and heat shield in clearer detail.

Researchers utilizing the HiRISE instrument were able to animate a series of photos from October 25 through November 1, and the animated images depict Schiaparelli’s parachute anchored by its back shell, flapping in the Martian wind. Business Insider believes that it’s likely this parachute may remain on Mars for centuries to come, “unless a future Martian colonist comes to pick it up.”

Schiaparelli’s final contact with ESA suggested that it had initially cheated death as it reentered Mars at a speed of 13,000 mph. The craft then removed its heat shield, deployed a parachute, and was supposed to turn on its thrusters en route to a soft landing on the Martian surface. What happened next, however, has been a mystery for ESA researchers, who have been working overtime to get to the bottom of Schiaparelli’s crash and find out what caused it.

For the meantime, ESA believes it may have been a computer glitch that had confused the lander, causing it to misjudge its distance from the surface. Although it was about a mile high at the time, Schiaparelli may have thought it was much closer to the ground.

Processed image of Schiaparelli's parachute#Schiaparelli #ExoMars #ESA pic.twitter.com/9vd1MzItg9

— Roman Tkachenko (@_RomanTkachenko) November 3, 2016

Following its crash, Schiaparelli has become a part of a rising number of spacecraft that have failed to successfully reach Mars’ surface; Business Insider notes that it is the 11^th failed attempt out of 19 tries to touch down on Mars with various types of space vehicles. But had it made a proper landing, it would have become ESA’s first Mars lander to make it to the Red Planet’s surface without any significant hitch.

According to Engadget, the ESA’s probe into the Schiaparelli crash may continue until the end of November. But the ExoMars mission’s second half will continue, as Schiaparelli’s mothership, the Trace Gas Orbiter, is expected to keep pushing forward until 2022 at the earliest. ESA is also planning to launch another Mars mission, as it works closely with Russia’s Roscosmos in hopes of launching another spacecraft to the Red Planet by 2020.

[Featured Image by ESA/Getty Images]