Schiaparelli EDM (Italian: [skjapaˈrɛlli]) was a failed Entry, Descent and Landing Demonstrator Module (EDM) of the ExoMars programme—a joint mission of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Russian space agency Roscosmos.[4] It was built in Italy and was intended to test technology for future soft landings on the surface of Mars.[5] It also had a limited but focused science payload that would have measured atmospheric electricity on Mars and local meteorological conditions.[2][6][7]
Launched together with the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO) on 14 March 2016, Schiaparelli attempted a landing on 19 October 2016. Telemetry signals from Schiaparelli, monitored in real time by the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope in India (and confirmed by Mars Express), were lost about one minute from the surface during the final landing stages.[8] On 21 October 2016, NASA released an image by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter showing what appears to be the lander’s crash site.[9] The telemetry data accumulated and relayed by ESA’s ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and Mars Express were used to investigate the failure modes of the landing technology employed.