Nasa announces Juno craft circling gas giant had to shut down camera and instruments, while ESA says Schiaparelli lander may have crashed on red planet

Bad day for space probes: one lost on Mars, another in 'safe mode' at Jupiter

Nasa’s Juno space probe orbiting Jupiter went into “safe mode” with cameras and instruments offline just as it prepared to pass over the immense planet’s dense cloud tops, the space agency said.

Juno had rebooted its onboard computer and could communicate with Earth but its activities were limited until engineers diagnosed what went wrong, Nasa said.



“The spacecraft is healthy and we are working our standard recovery procedure,” said Rick Nybakken, Juno project manager from Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

“It’s too early to take a guess” but the issue with Juno was not caused by the intense radiation belts surrounding Jupiter because the spacecraft was far away when it entered safe mode, said mission chief scientist Scott Bolton of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio.



On Mars, scientists with the European Space Agency lost contact with the Schiaparelli experimental lander that was supposed to touch down. The mother ship successfully slipped into orbit around Mars but the fate of the lander was unknown.



Schiaparelli lander's planned descent to Mars Schiaparelli lander’s planned descent to Mars

For Juno it is the second setback in less than a week. The solar-powered craft has been orbiting Jupiter since July on a $1.1bn mission to explore its poles, atmosphere and interior.

Last week mission managers decided to postpone an engine firing planned for Wednesday after a pair of valves in the spacecraft’s propulsion system did not work as expected. Nasa said this and the latest problem were not related.

The delay means Juno will not swing close again to Jupiter until December. The spacecraft made its first close pass in August, beaming back pictures of Jupiter’s stormy north pole, which appeared bluer than the rest of the planet.



Scientists continued to pore over close-up images from the first flyby, determining that Jupiter’s magnetic fields and northern and southern auroras were more powerful than expected.

The Juno mission was designed to fly closer to Jupiter than previous spacecraft, coming within 2,500 miles of the surface. Some three dozen close passes are planned during the 20-month mission.

With the Associated Press</s>The search for life on Mars took a giant leap on Wednesday when a space lander touched down on the red planet in Europe’s first attempt to land a craft there since the Beagle 2’s “heroic failure” more than a decade ago.

The disc-shaped 577-kg (1,272 lb) Schiaparelli lander, which is testing technologies for a rover due to follow in 2020, landed on Mars after a risky descent, but scientists are still waiting to find out what shape it is in.

During the six minutes descent to the surface, it used a parachute and thrusters to slow from a speed of nearly 21,000 km (13,000 miles) per hour.

“We have to wait a little bit to see what happens with the test lander. But this (mission) is already a success so far,” European Space Agency (ESA) Director General Jan Woerner said at ESA’s Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany.

The lander is named for Giovanni Schiaparelli, the Italian astronomer who in 1877 began mapping the topography of Mars, extending study of what are now known as the planet’s canals, a mistranslation of the Italian word canali, or channels.

“Mars has already inspired people for centuries,” ESA’s Woerner told Reuters TV.

Schiaparelli is part of the European-Russian ExoMars program, which will search for signs of past and present life on Mars and represents only the second European attempt to land a craft on the red planet. Britain’s Beagle 2 was ejected from the Mars Express spacecraft in 2003 but never made contact after failing to deploy its solar panels upon landing.

At the time it was dubbed “a heroic failure.”

Landing on Mars, Earth’s neighbor some 35 million miles (56 million km) away, is a notoriously difficult task that has bedeviled most Russian efforts and given NASA trouble as well.

A seemingly hostile environment on Mars has not detracted from its allure, with U.S. President Barack Obama recently highlighting his pledge to send people to the planet by the 2030s.

Entrepreneur Elon Musk’s SpaceX is developing a massive rocket and capsule to transport large numbers of people and cargo to Mars with the ultimate goal of colonizing the planet, with Musk saying he would like to launch the first crew as early as 2024.

The primary goal of ExoMars is to find out whether life has ever existed on Mars. The spacecraft on which the Schiaparelli lander traveled to Mars, Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), carries an atmospheric probe to study trace gases such as methane around the planet.

Scientists believe that methane, a chemical that on Earth is strongly tied to life, could stem from micro-organisms that either became extinct millions of years ago and left gas frozen below the planet’s surface, or that some methane-producing organisms still survive.

“If there is life in our solar system beyond Earth, then Mars is the most interesting planet,” ESA’s Woerner said.

The second part of the ExoMars mission, delayed to 2020 from 2018, will deliver a European rover to the surface of Mars. It will be the first with the ability to both move across the planet’s surface and drill into the ground to collect and analyze samples.

The ExoMars 2016 mission is led by the European Space Agency (ESA), with Russia’s Roscosmos supplying the launcher and two of the four scientific instruments on the trace gas orbiter. The prime contractor is Thales Alenia Space, a joint venture between Thales and Finmeccanica.

The cost of the ExoMars mission to ESA, including the second part due in 2020, is expected to be about 1.3 billion euros ($1.4 billion). Russia’s contribution comes on top of that.</s>Older European and U.S. spacecraft already in orbit relayed data of the lander's six-minute descent. Then transmission stopped, leaving questions over what state the disc-shaped 1,272-pound Schiaparelli probe was in.

"It is clear that these are not good signs," said Paolo Ferri, the European Space Agency's head of mission operations.

However, the primary part of the mission, bringing the lander's mothership into orbit around Mars to search for signs of life, was a success, the agency said.

"To fly to Mars is a very big challenge. To fly and be in safe orbit is a very big challenge," ESA Director General Jan Woerner said at ESA's Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt.

Schiaparelli, which is testing technologies for a rover due to follow in 2020, represents only the second European attempt to land a craft on the red planet. Britain's Beagle 2 was ejected from the Mars Express spacecraft in 2003 but never made contact after failing to deploy its solar panels on landing.

At the time it was dubbed "a heroic failure."

ESA said more information about Schiaparelli should be available on Thursday, when scientists have had a chance to analyze data from the orbiting craft.

"Cross your fingers, we still have hope," Woerner said on Wednesday.

Landing on Mars, currently some 35 million miles away from its nearest planetary neighbor Earth, is a notoriously difficult task that has thwarted most efforts by Russia and given U.S. space agency NASA trouble as well.

The planet's hostile environment has not detracted from its allure, with President Barack Obama recently highlighting his pledge to send people to the surface by the 2030s.

"With this mission we're laying the foundation for going there," astronaut Alexander Gerst, who is set to become the first German commander of the International Space Station in 2018, told Reuters TV.

Elon Musk's SpaceX is developing a massive rocket and capsule to transport large numbers of people and cargo to Mars with the ultimate goal of colonizing the planet, and the U.S. entrepreneur has said he would like to launch the first crew as early as 2024.

The primary goal of ExoMars, the European-Russian program that launched Schiaparelli, is to find out whether life has ever existed on Mars.

The spacecraft on which the lander traveled, Trace Gas Orbiter, carries an atmospheric probe to study trace gases such as methane around the planet.

Scientists believe that methane, a chemical that on Earth is strongly tied to life, could stem from micro-organisms that either became extinct millions of years ago and left gas frozen below the planet's surface, or that some methane-producing organisms still survive.

"If there is life in our solar system beyond Earth, then Mars is the most interesting planet," ESA's Woerner told Reuters TV.

The second part of the ExoMars mission, delayed to 2020 from 2018, will deliver a European rover to Mars. It will be the first with the ability to both move across the planet's surface and drill into the ground to collect and analyze samples.

The ExoMars 2016 mission is led by the European Space Agency, with Russia's Roscosmos supplying the launcher and two of the four scientific instruments on the trace gas orbiter. The prime contractor is Thales Alenia Space, a joint venture between Thales and Finmeccanica.

The cost of the ExoMars mission to ESA, including the second part due in 2020, is expected to be about $1.4 billion. Russia's contribution comes on top of that.</s>BERLIN (AP) — The European Space Agency says it still hasn’t received any signal from its experimental Mars lander since shortly before it was meant to reach the red planet’s surface.

That means the planned “soft landing” of the Schiaparelli probe Wednesday likely failed, though there’s no confirmation of that yet.

The head of ESA, Jan Woerner, said Thursday that the mission should still be considered a success because the probe sent a vast amount of data back before going silent.

He said the data will be used to plan a future European robotic mission to Mars planned for 2020.

Woerner said that the other part of the ExoMars mission, which involved putting a probe into the orbit of Mars to analyze gases in its atmosphere, worked exactly as planned.</s>DARMSTADT, Germany - A European space lander reached Mars on Wednesday in what scientists hope will mark a major milestone in exploration of the red planet, but whether it touched down on the surface in good health was far from certain.

Older European and U.S. spacecraft already in orbit relayed data of the lander's six-minute descent. Then transmission stopped, leaving questions over what state the disc-shaped 1,272 lb Schiaparelli probe was in.

"It is clear that these are not good signs," said Paolo Ferri, the European Space Agency's (ESA) head of mission operations.

However, the primary part of the mission, bringing the lander's mothership into orbit around Mars to search for signs of life, was a success, the agency said.

"To fly to Mars is a very big challenge. To fly and be in safe orbit is a very big challenge," ESA Director General Jan Woerner said at ESA's Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany.

Schiaparelli, which is testing technologies for a rover due to follow in 2020, represents only the second European attempt to land a craft on the red planet. Britain's Beagle 2 was ejected from the Mars Express spacecraft in 2003 but never made contact after failing to deploy its solar panels on landing.

At the time it was dubbed "a heroic failure."

ESA said more information about Schiaparelli should be available on Thursday, when scientists have had a chance to analyze data from the orbiting craft.

"Cross your fingers, we still have hope," Woerner said on Wednesday.</s>Scientists were waiting for word Wednesday on whether the European Space Agency’s experimental Schiaparelli probe had safely touched down on Mars.

Signals received from the lander indicated that it entered the atmosphere of the red planet as planned and deployed its parachute.

Schiaparelli is meant to test technology for a future European rover and avoid the fate of Europe’s ill-starred Beagle 2 robot, which failed to function after landing on Mars 13 years ago.

The probe is part of a larger mission called ExoMars that will help in the hunt for life on the planet.

Schiaparelli was released from the mother ship, the Trace Gas Orbiter, on Sunday. Scientists said the gentle approach would turn into a six-minute hell ride when the probe plunged into the hot, dusty Martian atmosphere and hurtled toward the surface at 21,000 kph (13,050 mph).

If all went to plan, Schiaparelli would deploy a parachute and then thrusters to slow down to 10 kph (6.2 mph) before hitting the surface.

Don McCoy, the manager of the ExoMars project, said some data had been received from the lander confirming its entry and the deployment of its parachute. More information was expected later Wednesday.

“We can’t conclude the real status of (Schiaparelli) at the moment but indeed it did enter the atmosphere,” McCoy said at mission control in Darmstadt, Germany.

Landing a spacecraft on Mars is notoriously difficult and several past missions have failed, including the European Space Agency’s previous attempt in 2003 with the rover Beagle 2. It made it to Mars but its solar panels didn’t unfold properly, preventing it from communicating.

While Schiaparelli has some scientific instruments on board, its main purpose is to rehearse the landing and test technology for a European rover mission to Mars in 2020. NASA has successfully placed several robotic vehicles on the planet, including the Opportunity and Curiosity rovers.

The ExoMars program, which comprises the current and 2020 mission, is ESA’s first interplanetary mission jointly undertaken with the Russian space agency Roscosmos.

Schiaparelli took off for Mars in March aboard a Russian rocket together with the Trace Gas Orbiter.

The orbiter, which also has NASA-made instruments on board, will analyze methane and other gases in the atmosphere.

Methane is created by biological or geological activity and breaks down within a few hundred years once it reaches the atmosphere, suggesting there is biological or geological activity on Mars now or in the recent past.

The prospect of finding even microscopic organisms on Mars has excited scientists for some time, but so far none has been discovered.

Europe and Russia celebrated placing the robot explorer into Mars orbit on Wednesday, but ground controllers faced an anxious night searching for the tiny lander it had dispatched to the Red Planet’s surface.

The Schiaparelli was meant to touch down at 1448 GMT.

But contact with the paddling pool-sized lander was lost during its six-minute descent through the Red Planet’s thin, carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere.

“It’s clear these are not good signs,” ESA operations head Paolo Ferri said at ground control in Darmstadt, Germany. “But we need more information” before declaring the operation failed.

Schiaparelli was Europe’s first attempt at a Mars landing since the British-built Beagle 2 was lost without trace 13 years ago .

An update should be ready by 0800 GMT on Thursday, Ferri said.

On the upside, flight operations manager Michel Denis announced that the TGO itself, which is to sniff Mars’ atmosphere for gases possibly excreted by molecular life forms, had correctly entered Red Planet’s orbit.

“It’s a good spacecraft in the right place, and we have a mission around Mars,” he said.

The TGO and Schiaparelli comprise phase one of the ExoMars mission through which Europe and Russia seek to join the United States in probing the hostile Martian surface.</s>The disc-shaped 577-kg (1,272 lb) Schiaparelli lander, which will test technologies for a rover due to follow in 2020, is expected to enter Mars's atmosphere at a speed of nearly 21,000 km (13,049 miles) per hour at 1442 GMT.

It will use a parachute and thrusters to slow down before touching down on the planet's surface only six minutes later.

The lander is named for Giovanni Schiaparelli, the Italian astronomer who in 1877 began mapping the topography of Mars, extending study of what are now known as the planet's canals, a mistranslation of the Italian word canali, or channels.

Schiaparelli is part of the European-Russian ExoMars program, which will search for signs of past and present life on Mars and represents only the second European attempt to land a craft on the red planet, after Britain's Beagle 2 was ejected from the Mars Express spacecraft in 2003 but never made contact after failing to deploy its solar panels upon landing.

At the time it was dubbed "a heroic failure".

Landing on Mars, Earth's neighbor some 35 million miles (56 million km) away, is a notoriously difficult task that has bedeviled most Russian efforts and given NASA trouble as well.

A seemingly hostile environment on Mars has not detracted from its allure, with U.S. President Barack Obama recently highlighting his pledge to send people to the planet by the 2030s.

Elon Musk's SpaceX is developing a massive rocket and capsule to transport large numbers of people and cargo to Mars with the ultimate goal of colonizing the planet, with Musk saying he would like to launch the first crew as early as 2024.

The primary goal of ExoMars is to find out whether life has ever existed on Mars. The spacecraft on which the Schiaparelli lander traveled to Mars, Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), carries an atmospheric probe to study trace gases such as methane around the planet.

Scientists believe that methane, a chemical that on Earth is strongly tied to life, could stem from micro-organisms that either became extinct millions of years ago and left gas frozen below the planet's surface, or that some methane-producing organisms still survive.

The second part of the ExoMars mission, delayed to 2020 from 2018, will deliver a European rover to the surface of Mars. It will be the first with the ability to both move across the planet's surface and drill into the ground to collect and analyze samples.

The ExoMars 2016 mission is led by the European Space Agency (ESA), with Russia's Roscosmos supplying the launcher and two of the four scientific instruments on the trace gas orbiter. The prime contractor is Thales Alenia Space, a joint venture between Thales ( ) and Finmeccanica SIFI.MI.

The cost of the ExoMars mission to ESA, including the second part due in 2020, is expected to be about 1.3 billion euros ($1.4 billion). Russia's contribution comes on top of that.</s>A space lander touched down on Mars on Wednesday in what is Europe's first attempt to land a craft there since the Beagle 2's "heroic failure" more than a decade ago.

Scientists are now awaiting updates on the status of the disc-shaped 577-kg (1,272 lb) Schiaparelli lander, which is testing technologies for a rover due to follow in 2020, the European Space Agency said.</s>A European lander that descended to Mars on Wednesday has failed to send signs of life to its mothership, leaving scientists uncertain whether it touched down on the Red Planet gently as planned, or crashed and broke apart, the European Space Agency (ESA) said.

"We've had two overflights (by Mars orbiters) and there was no signal," ESA Spacecraft Operations Manager Andrea Accomazzo told journalists on Thursday.

The disc-shaped 577-kg (1,272 lb) Schiaparelli, which is testing technologies for a rover due to follow in 2020, represents only the second European attempt to land a craft on Mars. Britain's Beagle 2 was sent down by the Mars Express spacecraft in 2003 but never made contact after failing to deploy its solar panels on landing.

The primary part of the current Russian-European ExoMars mission, bringing the Schiaparelli lander's mothership into orbit around Mars to search for signs of life, was meanwhile a success.

Scientists said they had received data from Schiaparelli covering its entry into the Martian atmosphere and the deployment of its heat shield and parachute, which were designed to slow it from a speed of 21,000 km per hour.

But its thrusters, also used to slow down the lander, appeared to have fired for only a few seconds, much shorter than expected. The transmission stopped around 50 seconds before the planned touchdown on Mars, they said.

"We need to understand what happened in the last few seconds before the planned landing," said David Parker, ESA's Director of Human Spaceflight and Robotic Exploration.</s>(CNN) The European Space Agency (ESA) has confirmed the Schiaparelli spacecraft , which was expected to land on Mars on Wednesday, has been lost.

During a press conference on Thursday, scientists said that Schiaparelli stopped transmitting around 50 seconds before the expected landing.

The agency suspects something went wrong when the parachute was jettisoned:"The ejection itself appears to have occurred earlier than expected, but analysis is not yet complete," it said in a statement.

ESA's Director General, Jan Wörner, said Schiaparelli's primary role was to test whether they could successfully land a probe on Mars.

"Recording the data during the descent was part of that, and it is important we can learn what happened, in order to prepare for the future," Wörner said.

David Parker, ESA's Director of Human Spaceflight and Robotic Exploration said it's what they wanted from a test.

"We have data coming back that allows us to fully understand the steps that did occur, and why the soft landing did not occur," he said.

The probe was equipped with nine thrusters that were due to be activated for the last 30 seconds to help cushion the landing. But while they were confirmed to have been briefly activated, the agency believes they switched off sooner than expected.

Scientists with ESA were anxiously waiting for news from Schiaparelli yesterday.

After a high-speed, fiery descent through the Martian atmosphere, scientists at mission control in Darmstadt, Germany, did not get a signal back from the 1,272 pound (577 kilogram) probe.

Schiaparelli's companion craft, an orbiter with a much longer mission, successfully made it to orbit on Wednesday. The Trace Gas Orbiter will investigate the source of methane on Mars, which could be a sign of life or geological processes.

The orbiter adds to a fleet of spacecraft that are looking for signs of life on our neighboring planet.

The presence of methane is a signature of life on Earth, so the orbiting spacecraft will be trying to detect it and determine where it is coming from.

Adam Stevens, a researcher at the University of Edinburgh and the UK Centre for Astrobiology said methane may be produced by other processes but the mission will help "rule out some possibilities ... to tease out what is going on."

The Trace Gas Oribiter is expected to operate until 2020.

When will humans get to Mars?

While ESA continues its attempt to land on Mars, the United States is moving ahead with plans to send humans to the planet.

Two NASA rovers continue to operate on the Martian surface -- Curiosity, which arrived in 2012, and Opportunity, which has been returning images for more than 12 years. Spirit's mission ended in 2011.
The European Space Agency fails to contact its Schiaparelli lander during its descent through the atmosphere of the planet Mars.