Quote:
Originally Posted by Evans, Marv
Wasn't that about 20 years ago when the engineers mixed up metric with standard (ours) on one or more of the landing systems?
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That was an orbital mission from 1999. The mix up in brought the orbital insertion burn too close to the planet where it either entered the atmosphere and crashed on the planet or was flung out to a solar orbit. Either way the Mars Climate orbiter was lost.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Climate_Orbiter
The Mars Polar Lander had a faulty sensor shut off the landing sequence 40 meters from the surface also in 1999. It landed hard enough to destroy the lander but it wasn’t a 100+ mph crash.
Quote:
Originally Posted by javadog
That one burned up before they even got to Mars. Came in a little hot... The big splat was an ESA mission. I think the splat could be seen from space.
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As it turns out the Beagle 2 actually soft landed on Mars, but a problem occurred when the petals of the lander began to unfold. It did not completely unfold after landing. The transmitter was never deployed so it could not communicate back to earth. 11years later a Russian space enthusiast using publicly available NASA images found the Beagle 2 in its partially unfolded state. Photos can be seen on the Wikipedia link below.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beagle_2
EDIT: Now I remember “the Big Splat.” It happened in 2016.
https://exploration.esa.int/web/mars/-/47852-entry-descent-and-landing-demonstrator-module
The ESA lander Schiaparelli hit the surface at 186mph (300km/hr) Here are some photos . . .
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-37731671