The missing Schiaparelli Mars lander, which went off the radar after its launch to the surface of the Red Planet for its expedition quest on Oct. 19, has been found by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter surrounded by debris as it apparently crashed landed on impact.

The European Space Agency announced on Wednesday that the Schiaparelli Mars Lander was found on a black spot with the dark rays of debris in a scan made by the Orbiter. The Mars Lander's parachute appears to be attached to the rear heat shield, 1.4 km to the south away from the site of impact.  The front shield, which was ejected about four minutes late into the descent, is located roughly about 1.4 km away from the Lander to the east.

Early data indicate that Schiaparelli survived most of its entry, but in the last few seconds before jettisoning the chute, something unexpected happened, according to Science News.

The Schiaparelli lander was deployed by its mothership, the ESA's Trace Gas Orbiter, which is now successfully orbiting Mars. The descent took two days for the lander. While the orbiter was successfully inserted into orbit, the lander did not successfully make a soft landing, failing to send a signal and losing contact a minute before touchdown.

The unfortunate demise of the Mars Lander is still under investigation by the ESA. However, it was pointed out that a computer glitch might be the reason for the crash.

The lander was designed as an experiment to test technologies and protocols for safely dropping a payload on the surface of the Red Planet, such as a rover planned to arrive in 2021.

Despite the Schiaparelli's failure, the second phase of the ExoMars mission is still scheduled for 2020. Data will be collected from the Trace Gas Orbiter and any information gathered by the fallen lander.