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European Space Agency ESA and Russia’s Roscosmos have announced that a second trial of a parachute system planned for use on the Mars rover has ended in failure. The parachute test failed once in May. As it fails again, there are concerns that it will affect the actual launch scheduled for 2020.
The parachute test conducted on August 5 was to verify that the deployment of a parachute with a diameter of 35 m was successfully completed. However, just like when the 15m parachute was tested in May, the canopy was damaged before the parachute was released, resulting in a small parachute leading the main parachute.
ESA and Los Cosmos are planning to conduct additional experiments at other high altitudes within this year as the problem must be identified and resolved prior to launch in 2020.
The ExoMars rover is aiming at a place called Oxia Planum near the Mars equator, which is noted for having water once in search of life. In addition to ESA and Los Cosmos, which are pursuing the Exomas project, the US and China are competing. Each of them plans to launch their own rover in the same period in 2020.
ESA will open a forum for regular information exchange with NASA in order not to repeat the same failure after the failed landing of the Mars landing demonstration aircraft in 2016, and will also hold an expert panel discussion in September. It is also examining additional parachute test models and ground simulation possibilities. ESA officials said that arriving and landing on Mars is a very difficult task. Nevertheless, they will try to control the system that will safely ship to Mars for scientific mission. Related information can be found here .
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