The Human Footprint on Mars is Expanding...Sometimes Faster Than We'd Like

The Schiaparelli crash site was observed on November 1 by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). The long arc might have been caused by an explosion of hydrazine propellant. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UAz) It will be a long time until humans put boots on Mars--at least until the 2030s and possibly a lot longer, depending on what the incoming Trump administration thinks about NASA's unfunded exploration plans. But through our robotic emissaries, we have already made quite a mark on the planet. The newest one, on October 19, was the sad and unexpected splat from the European Space Agency's Schiaparelli probe. Apparently, betrayed by an errant altitude reading from one of its instruments, the lander crashed into the surface at about 300 kilometers per hour and gouged out 2.4-meter-wide (8-foot) crater surrounded by a debris trail, probably from a fuel explosion. This was hardly the first time that an attempted Mars touchdown ended the wrong way. Russia's Mars 3 and Mars 6 landers made it to the surface but failed immediately (a shame, they were very cool designs). NASA's Mars Polar Lander had a catastrophic crash that prompted an overhaul of the agency's whole Mars program. The British Beagle 2 probe never phoned home after reaching the surface. They all still sit there on Mars, gathering dust and slowly fading away, along with a whole other set of probes that survived the journey.