Mars Remains an Elusiveness Goal

What started as a hopeful week has ended badly for the European Space Agency (ESA).  It has lost contact with its ExoMars landing craft late into its six minutes descent. The assumption is that the craft crashed on the surface, another victim of the Martian allure. It also raises questions about a planned rover mission.

ESA' General Director Jan Wörner put his best spin on the situation:

Following yesterday's events we have an impressive orbiter around Mars ready for science and for relay support for the ExoMars rover mission in 2020...Schiaparelli's primary role was to test European landing technologies. 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."

This is just one more reminder that none of this is easy. We have to accept a fair amount of risk with these distant missions, and the costs will get higher with manned missions.