2016: ExoMars Schiaparelli
Named for the 19th-century astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli, the European Space Agency’s entry, descent, and landing module is one of the more recent failures on this list. Expected to land on Mars in October 2016—the main point of its voyage was to show how such craft could do controlled landings on Mars—Schiaparelli also carried a few instruments for scientific research.
They were never put to use. Schiaparelli crashed near its target site. The craft’s situation was similar to the Mars Polar Orbiter, with Schiaparelli’s on-board computer miscalculating that the craft was below ground level when it was actually still descending. The parachute released, and the module free-fell the remaining 2.3 miles to Mars. A debris field was imaged by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter over the following weeks, revealing a black scar on the red dirt from the vehicle’s 330-mile-per-hour crash landing.
