The hazardous task of fuelling Schiaparelli, the ExoMars 2016 entry, descent, and landing demonstrator module, has been safely completed at Baikonur. The module now has sufficient fuel on board to power the thrusters it will use while descending through the Martian atmosphere in October this year.
[The ExoMars 2016 spacecraft is scheduled to launch March 14th-25th; the Schiaparelli module is carried to Mars on the Trace Gas Orbiter.]
The 600 kg Schiaparelli module is equipped with nine thrusters, clustered in groups of three. These will be activated about 1.3 km above the surface of Mars to slow the spacecraft down to less than 2 km/h when about 2m above the surface. At this point, the thrusters will be switched off and the module will drop to the ground.
The thrusters are powered by hydrazine, and the hazardous task of filling the fuel tanks with this toxic fuel and the successive pressurisation of the propellant tanks to launch pressure was completed on Sunday evening, by a dedicated team from Thales Alenia France who are in Baikonur specifically to take care of fuelling the module. [More at links]