Beagle 2 phones home...?
Discussion
Given its design I wondered at the time if it had been incredibly unlucky (abit like the Philea lander on the comet recently) and fallen against a small rock and was unable to open properly.
Its a small Dr Pilinger isn't still with us to learn its fate, he did a great job getting it built and flown and promoting it.
Its a small Dr Pilinger isn't still with us to learn its fate, he did a great job getting it built and flown and promoting it.
scubadude said:
Given its design I wondered at the time if it had been incredibly unlucky (abit like the Philea lander on the comet recently) and fallen against a small rock and was unable to open properly.
Its a small Dr Pilinger isn't still with us to learn its fate, he did a great job getting it built and flown and promoting it.
Totally agree, wish he was here.Its a small Dr Pilinger isn't still with us to learn its fate, he did a great job getting it built and flown and promoting it.
Nice piece on BBC
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-3078...
I can see in the future it being given an MOT and brought back to life, if nothing more than to finish the mission. Assuming we are all over the red planet in the next 200 years or so.
Mojocvh said:
The ESA commission findings were quite critical of the projects management ie Colin Pillinger in light of this finding it would seem only right that those criticisms be redated...
Hmm got kinda dusty here...
Perhaps their findings were justified. It was probably quality control issues and under-testing of components that caused the craft to fail to function when it arrived on the surface. It looks like the lid that exposed the transmission aerial didn't deploy - so it couldn't broadcast any data back to earth.Hmm got kinda dusty here...
L
"The failure cause is pure speculation, but it could have been, and probably was, down to sheer bad luck - a heavy bounce perhaps distorting the structure as clearances on solar panel deployment weren't big; or a punctured and slowly leaking airbag not separating sufficiently from the lander, causing a hang-up in deployment," he told BBC News.
Not that the above scenario has ever happened before (or since.)
I don't see that the critisms of Pillinger were justified then or now, perhaps the Brits should just give up being innovative is the fields of high and micro technology, all done on on the minimum of budgets... Hmm
Eric Mc said:
Mojocvh said:
The ESA commission findings were quite critical of the projects management ie Colin Pillinger in light of this finding it would seem only right that those criticisms be redated...
Hmm got kinda dusty here...
Perhaps their findings were justified. Hmm got kinda dusty here...
Not that the above scenario has ever happened before (or since.)
I don't see that the critisms of Pillinger were justified then or now, perhaps the Brits should just give up being innovative is the fields of high and micro technology, all done on on the minimum of budgets... Hmm
I certainly wouldn't want Brits giving up on such ventures. But doing things "on the cheap" does have consequences.
In the mid 1990s, Dan Golden, the Administrator of NASA at the time, set in place a "cheaper, better, faster" programme in an effort to cut the costs of interplanetary probes. The plan was to use as much "off the shelf" equipment as possible. It was in this period that NASA suffered its two most embarrasing probe losses - both with Mars as it turned out.
As JFK pointed out in 1962, "We do these things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard".
I'd be all up for a Beagle 3.
In the mid 1990s, Dan Golden, the Administrator of NASA at the time, set in place a "cheaper, better, faster" programme in an effort to cut the costs of interplanetary probes. The plan was to use as much "off the shelf" equipment as possible. It was in this period that NASA suffered its two most embarrasing probe losses - both with Mars as it turned out.
As JFK pointed out in 1962, "We do these things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard".
I'd be all up for a Beagle 3.
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