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ExoMars parachutes prepared for martian deployment

July 22, 2025
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ExoMars parachutes prepared for martian deployment
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Essentially the most advanced parachute system to ever deploy on Mars has efficiently slowed down an ExoMars mock-up touchdown platform for a protected landing on Earth.

A stratospheric helium balloon lifted a dummy descent module and launched it above the Arctic Circle at an altitude of almost 30 km, triggering the deployment of two massive parachutes from their doughnut baggage.

“We’re blissful to substantiate that we have now a parachute design that may work on Mars – an formidable system with the biggest parachute ever to be flown exterior Earth,” says Luca Ferracina, ESA’s ExoMars Entry Descent and Touchdown Module system engineer.

ExoMars parachute high-altitude drop check

This high-altitude drop check marketing campaign came about on the Swedish Area Company’s Esrange Area Middle in Kiruna, northern Sweden, on 7 July.

Tips on how to check a Mars touchdown on Earth

To match the mix of density and pace that the capsule will expertise when diving into the skinny martian environment – about 1% of the density of Earth’s environment at sea stage – the balloon needed to fly very excessive.

The ExoMars parachutes dropped from an altitude of 29 km, or about thrice the altitude the place business plane cruise.

Stratospheric helium ballon for ExoMars

The dummy capsule then went into free-fall for about 20 seconds, reaching nearly the pace of sound, earlier than deploying the parachutes in flip.

“The mixture of velocity and low atmospheric density on this check is precisely the identical as what the parachutes will expertise on Mars. Testing on Earth is a method to achieve confidence and ensure that every one the weather carry out as anticipated,” explains Luca.  

Excessive-altitude drop exams require advanced logistics and strict climate circumstances for flight security. Esrange’s distinctive amenities and lengthy heritage of stratospheric balloon missions for the reason that early Nineteen Seventies make it an acceptable location for the marketing campaign.

Two are higher than one

Touchdown on Mars is a high-risk endeavour. In simply six minutes, the descent module has to decelerate from 21 000 km/h on the prime of the planet’s environment to a comfortable touchdown to maintain its treasured cargo, the Rosalind Franklin rover, match for floor exploration.

ExoMars parachute deployment sequence

Slowing down requires a thermal protect, two major parachutes – every with its personal pilot chute for extraction – and a retro-rocket propulsion system triggered 20 seconds earlier than touching the martian floor.

Many of the supersonic velocity will lower as a result of aerodynamic drag of the capsule. Essentially the most environment friendly method to take away the remaining pace for a protected touchdown is with a mixture of parachutes and retro-rockets.

“Utilizing two parachutes permits us to design a robust, medium-sized parachute to decelerate the probe by way of supersonic speeds after which a a lot bigger, light-weight parachute for the ultimate descent,” explains John Underwood, principal engineer at Vorticity, the UK firm entrusted with parachute design and check evaluation.  

Working in tandem

The primary stage major parachute is 15 m-wide, just like the kind of parachutes designed for touchdown NASA’s Viking Mars spacecraft in 1972. For ExoMars, groups are utilizing a variant designed for the profitable ESA Cassini-Huygens mission to Titan, Saturn’s largest moon. This three-stage parachute system still holds the record for the most distant landing from Earth ever attempted. 

ExoMars second stage parachute deployment on Earth

The second stage main parachute is 35 m-wide and it is formed from a series of rings with gaps in between them. This will be the largest parachute to ever fly on Mars or anywhere in the Solar System besides Earth. Made from over 800 square metres of fabric and more than four kilometres of cord for the suspension lines, it takes around three days to fold it inside its bag.

The meticulous folding of each parachute inside its bag is essential to guarantee a correct deployment. 

Storage and design challenges

The parachute system tested in Sweden was already qualified to fly to Mars in 2021, but was stored when the mission was put to a halt due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Preparing the capsule for ExoMars drop

“We are running this campaign to confirm our readiness for Mars, and to verify that the parachutes are still performing as expected after the long storage,” explains Luca.

The parachutes are each manufactured from very light fabric with a density of about 40 grams per square metre – about half that of a sheet of paper.

Parachute expertise elevating Europe

While telemetry was delivered in real time during the drop, the Vorticity team will now analyse the data together with high-speed video footage to evaluate the deceleration profile and inflation models.

ExoMars safe touchdown on Earth

“Testing on Earth has the advantage that we can obtain much more data and recover the parachutes for inspection after the test,” says John.  

The majority of the parachute system has been designed and built in Europe, including components from the Netherlands (the deployment mortars), Italy (parachutes) and Czechia (the parachute container). Thales Alenia Space in France supervised the test campaign as responsible for the parachute assembly system.

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