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#60
by
wsl2005
on 02 Mar, 2016 10:47
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#61
by
Svetoslav
on 02 Mar, 2016 17:55
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#62
by
Galactic Penguin SST
on 03 Mar, 2016 08:14
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I'm surprised that there's so little interest shown on this mission - well yes it's not the glamorous rover of ExoMars 18' (or was it already '20?), but I thought that everyone would be buzzed up by the prospects of mapping Martian methane. And, well, there will be yet another Mars landing! (though one might say that the Schiaparelli lander is pretty lackluster compared with the last few landers, but hey it's an European one)
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#63
by
Star One
on 03 Mar, 2016 08:59
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I'm surprised that there's so little interest shown on this mission - well yes it's not the glamorous rover of ExoMars 18' (or was it already '20?), but I thought that everyone would be buzzed up by the prospects of mapping Martian methane. And, well, there will be yet another Mars landing! (though one might say that the Schiaparelli lander is pretty lackluster compared with the last few landers, but hey it's an European one)
Yes the lack of interest on a spaceflight forum about this mission is disappointing. Perhaps if they incorporated the name Space X in there somewhere people would show more interest in it.
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#64
by
NovaSilisko
on 03 Mar, 2016 09:09
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I'm looking forward to it. Methane has proved annoyingly elusive on Mars, and it will be good to start getting a solid picture of what's going on with it. Also, I find Schiaparelli oddly adorable from its... rocket powered flying pancake sort of profile. Disappointed about no surface camera. The descent footage should be good, though.
Perhaps my lack of general hype is due to its current launch vehicle - Proton hasn't quite regained my trust just yet...
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#65
by
fvandrog
on 03 Mar, 2016 10:35
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Perhaps my lack of general hype is due to its current launch vehicle - Proton hasn't quite regained my trust just yet...
Exactly the same for me; I think this a mission which could give us very important insights into Mars and might give us clues about where to send future rovers for further research. I will be relieved once it has safely survived its launch and is on its way to Mars.
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#66
by
Star One
on 03 Mar, 2016 11:54
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Perhaps my lack of general hype is due to its current launch vehicle - Proton hasn't quite regained my trust just yet...
Exactly the same for me; I think this a mission which could give us very important insights into Mars and might give us clues about where to send future rovers for further research. I will be relieved once it has safely survived its launch and is on its way to Mars.
Don't ESA usually adopt extra checks on the launcher when it's a high profile mission like this?
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#67
by
baldusi
on 03 Mar, 2016 12:34
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It's on the Russians that part of mission assurance. I'm actually curbing my enthusiasm exactly because of the LV. A 9hr Briz-M mission? Fobos-Grunt broke my heart. It's my self defense mechanism to keep excitement low.
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#68
by
ZachS09
on 03 Mar, 2016 12:44
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It's on the Russians that part of mission assurance. I'm actually curbing my enthusiasm exactly because of the LV. A 9hr Briz-M mission? Fobos-Grunt broke my heart. It's my self defense mechanism to keep excitement low.
What about Beagle 2? I'm sure that broke your heart as well.
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#69
by
baldusi
on 03 Mar, 2016 13:12
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It's on the Russians that part of mission assurance. I'm actually curbing my enthusiasm exactly because of the LV. A 9hr Briz-M mission? Fobos-Grunt broke my heart. It's my self defense mechanism to keep excitement low.
What about Beagle 2? I'm sure that broke your heart as well.
Note really, failure at the Mars EDL are expected and part of the excitement of a mission. Failure on the Blok-D for the Mars 96 or the use of non rad-hard electronics that were fried before even TMI on Phobos-Grunt is sad. Mars Climate Orbiter was actually ironically funny. But you have to be on a metric country to understand it.
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#70
by
Sam Ho
on 03 Mar, 2016 13:41
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It's on the Russians that part of mission assurance. I'm actually curbing my enthusiasm exactly because of the LV. A 9hr Briz-M mission? Fobos-Grunt broke my heart. It's my self defense mechanism to keep excitement low.
What about Beagle 2? I'm sure that broke your heart as well.
Note really, failure at the Mars EDL are expected and part of the excitement of a mission. Failure on the Blok-D for the Mars 96 or the use of non rad-hard electronics that were fried before even TMI on Phobos-Grunt is sad. MPL was actually ironically funny. But you have to be on a metric country to understand it.
While a 9-hour Briz-M mission does mean an extended time of sitting on edge before TMI, it's not unusually long for a Briz-M. That's the duration of a standard GTO mission, and shorter than a 15-hour supersync delivery (Inmarsat 5). Briz hasn't had a failure in 3 years. Of course, it had 3 failures in the 6 months before that, counting the one on Rockot after payload separation that probably would have doomed a Proton mission.
Proton has been at about 90% reliability, or one failure a year, for the last several years.
This is the first Proton/Briz planetary mission, and the first Proton planetary mission since Mars 96.
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#71
by
plutogno
on 03 Mar, 2016 13:57
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MPL was actually ironically funny. But you have to be on a metric country to understand it.
MPL had nothing to do with the metric system (actually, no exact reason for its failure has ever been identified, I think). you are confusing MPL with MCO
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#72
by
eeergo
on 03 Mar, 2016 14:06
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#73
by
Svetoslav
on 06 Mar, 2016 16:35
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#74
by
Star One
on 06 Mar, 2016 23:23
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#75
by
Svetoslav
on 07 Mar, 2016 05:59
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#76
by
Star One
on 07 Mar, 2016 06:35
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#77
by
catdlr
on 08 Mar, 2016 08:38
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ExoMars 2016: Scaffold release and tilt
Published on Mar 8, 2016
Video from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, showing the scaffolding being released from around the ExoMars 2016 spacecraft composite, which is mounted with the Breeze upper stage on the conical launch vehicle adapter, and the spacecraft being tilted into the horizontal position ready to be enclosed inside the launcher fairing.
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#78
by
catdlr
on 08 Mar, 2016 08:39
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ExoMars 2016: Fairing encapsulation
Published on Mar 8, 2016
Video from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, showing the ExoMars 2016 spacecraft composite being encased inside the launcher fairing. The first half of the fairing is rolled into place underneath the spacecraft assembly, and the second fairing half is manoeuvred into place by an overhead crane.
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#79
by
eeergo
on 08 Mar, 2016 10:05
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ExoMars 2016: Fairing encapsulation
Published on Mar 8, 2016
Video from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, showing the ExoMars 2016 spacecraft composite being encased inside the launcher fairing. The first half of the fairing is rolled into place underneath the spacecraft assembly, and the second fairing half is manoeuvred into place by an overhead crane.
In the video I noticed something that is apparent also in the pictures I posted last week but which I hadn't noticed before: there appears to be a "serpentine" radiator for cooling and/or heating of the payload. Checking other launches with this standard fairing, it appears to have always been there, so it doesn't look like it's an extra for this special payload.
Does anyone have more details about this system? If it indeed is a temperature conditioning system, why is it not enough and needs to be complemented by the usual grey thermal blankets?
) stack is taking shape: the orbital unit has been rotated to horizontal, and the probe has been encapsulated inside the fairing.
) stack is taking shape: the orbital unit has been rotated to horizontal, and the probe has been encapsulated inside the fairing.