During mid-October this year, the European Space Agency (ESA) was set to land a probe on the surface of Mars in order to pave the way for future missions to the planet for drilling purposes.  The mission was intended to test the landing technology that the ESA could use for future ExoMars missions.

The lander made its way through the solar system attached to the Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), whose main mission is to detect gases in the Martian atmosphere in order to determine whether or not traces of life can be found.  Fortunately, the TGO was not damaged, and it can continue its search of the red planet for the crucial methane gas.

On the surface, Schiaparelli's mission was simple: ensure that the landing methods for future missions to Mars will be successful in order to continue the search extraterrestrial life.

As the ESA’s head of mission explains, “We should remember this landing was a test...as part of the test, you want to learn what happened.”

With the plan having been laid out by the ESA, the mission should have been successful; however, mistakes had been made during the descent towards the Red Planet.  What is known so far is that the lander’s boosters were meant to fire for approximately 29 seconds, but the probe miscalculated its distance to the ground and shut the boosters off after around three seconds, which caused the lander to plummet to the Martian surface at around 186 miles per hour.

Photos of the crashed lander have been taken by NASA, which provided the clues as to what occurred during its descent.  They show the rear heatshield and parachute landed approximately 0.9 kilometers away, and it can be seen that on impact, the probe created a crater surrounded by debris.  The parachute of the probe can be seen moving in the wind on the surface of Mars, and will most likely continue to do so uninterrupted for years to come.

There is talk of utilizing the crater for future research to further understand the surface properties of Mars, but there are people who disagree.

According to project scientist Håkan Svedhem, "The crater could still be interesting even if small, but in our case, it is likely to be contaminated by all kinds of material from the lander and its fuel,"

This probe was not the first mission to Mars that has failed in human history, with there having been around 15 other missions that have failed in the past.  The ESA’s most recent mission to Mars prior to Schiaparelli was the Beagle 2, and it had been lost on the surface of the red planet in 2003, before it was spotted in 2015 by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter HiRISE camera.

The ESA remains hopeful for the future, and with the TGO still orbiting Mars, the possibility of extraterrestrial life on Mars could still be determined.