Fuelling Schiaparelli at Baikonur
Date: 29 January 2016
Satellite: ExoMars 2016 Schiaparelli
Location: Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan
Copyright: ESA - T. Walloschek
The hazardous task of fuelling Schiaparelli, the ExoMars 2016 entry, descent, and landing demonstrator module, is carried out by experts from Thales Alenia France who are in Baikonur specifically to take care of fuelling the module.
The 600 kg Schiaparelli module is equipped with nine thrusters, in clusters of three, which will slow the module as it descends through the Martian atmosphere.
Three 17.5 litre tanks on Schiaparelli are each filled with about 15 kg of hydrazine.
In addition, a high-pressure helium tank on the module is filled with 15.6 litres of helium and brought to flight pressure (at approximately 170 bar pressure) before the hydrazine fuelling. This helium is used to pressurise the propellant tanks and bring the propulsion system to the correct operating pressure.
