Schiaparelli landing site. Images obtained by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) satellite of the landing site for the European Space Agency (ESA)'s Schiaparelli EDM lander. This spacecraft, which was testing landing technologies, attempted to land on Mars on 19 October 2016, but contact was lost during the descent. The top picture shows the projected landing area (yellow ellipse), with the suspected actual landing area marked by a black rectangle (centre). The insets show this area before (left) and after (right) the landing. A closer view is at bottom right. The new bright white spot is thought to be the lander's parachute. The dark spot is thought to be the impact made by the lander itself. Telemetry data indicates the thrusters switched off prematurely, and the lander fell to the surface from a height of several kilometres.