[meteorite-list] ExoMars Lander Module Named Schiaparelli

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/ExoMars_lander_module_named_Schiaparelli

ExoMars Lander Module Named Schiaparelli
European Space Agency
8 November 2013

The entry, descent and landing demonstrator module that will fly on the 
2016 ExoMars mission has been named "Schiaparelli" in honour of the 
Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli, who famously mapped the Red 
Planet's surface features in the 19th century.

ExoMars is a joint endeavour between ESA and Russia's Roscosmos space 
agency, and comprises two missions that will be launched to Mars in 2016 
and 2018.

The Trace Gas Orbiter and Schiaparelli make up the 2016 mission, while 
the ExoMars rover, with its carrier and surface platform, will be launched 
in 2018. Working together, the orbiter and rover will search the planet 
for signs of life, past and present.

Schiaparelli will prove key technologies for Europe with a controlled 
landing on Mars. It will enter the atmosphere at 21 000 km/h and use parachutes 
and thrusters to brake to less than 15 km/h before landing less than eight 
minutes later.

The module will collect data on the atmosphere during the entry and descent, 
and its instruments will perform local environment measurements at the 
landing site, which is in a region of plains known as Meridiani Planum.

The 2016 mission will arrive at Mars during the period when seasonal global 
dust storms are most likely. Thus the measurements obtained during landing 
will provide important information for improving models of the atmosphere 
and the mechanisms that trigger dust storms

"Considering the importance of Giovanni Schiaparelli's pioneering 
observations of Mars, it was an easy decision to give his name to the 
ExoMars module that is paving the way to the further exploration of the 
Red Planet," says Alvaro Gimenez, ESA's Director of Science and Robotic 
Exploration.

The name was suggested by a group of Italian scientists to the president 
of the Italian space agency, who then proposed it to ESA. Italy is the 
largest European contributor to the ExoMars program me.

Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli (1835-1910) was an accomplished scientist 
who dedicated much of his career to cataloguing and naming the surface 
features of Mars. During the "Great Opposition" of 1877, when Mars 
was relatively close to Earth, he surveyed the planet by eye through a 
telescope and sketched a network of linear features that he saw running 
across the surface. He assumed that these were natural water-filled channels 
and used the equivalent Italian word, "canali".

This term was often translated into English as "canals", leading to 
considerable speculation about whether a network of artificial watercourses 
had been excavated by an intelligent civilisation on Mars, perhaps for 
irrigation purposes.

However, many of the linear features seen and drawn by Schiaparelli and 
others, most notably Percival Lowell, were argued to be optical illusions 
resulting from observations by eye. Later photographic images of Mars 
did not show them and the arrival of the first space probes at the planet 
in the 1960s confirmed it to be the cold, dry place we know today.

Nevertheless, as a result of further space exploration, including ESA's 
Mars Express, we also now know that, deep in the Red Planet's past, 
water did flow freely in naturally-formed rivers and valleys, in some 
way vindicating Schiaparelli's original hypothesis. He also set a precedent 
for documenting features on planets, and many of the names he proposed 
for the major landscapes of Mars are still in use today.

Schiaparelli is also well known for working out that regular annual meteor 
showers emanating from specific regions of the sky are due to Earth's 
orbit intercepting trails of debris left by comets as they make their 
way through the Solar System. He also made accurate measurements of the 
rotation periods of Venus and Mercury and was a strong believer in the 
importance of science popularisation: he wrote books on astronomy and 
often gave public lectures.

"Schiaparelli's dedication to planetary science and to the communication 
of science was recognised worldwide and, as such, we want to celebrate 
his achievements by naming a key part of the ExoMars mission after him,"
says Rolf de Groot, Head of the Coordination Office for the Robotic Exploration 
Programme at ESA.

He adds: "The Schiaparelli module will not only provide Europe with 
the technology for landing on Mars, but will also give us a taste of the 
atmosphere and insight into the local environment at a new location on 
the planet's surface - exploration that Giovanni Schiaparelli could 
only have dreamed of over 135 years ago when he first started sketching 
the Red Planet."

For further information, please contact:

Markus Bauer
ESA Science and Robotic Exploration Communication Officer
Tel: +31 71 565 6799
Mob: +31 61 594 3 954
Email: Markus.Bauer at esa.int

Rolf de Groot
Head of the Coordination Office for the Robotic Exploration Programme
Tel: + 31 71 565 8106
Email: Rolf.de.Groot at esa.int