Mars Express - Beagle 2

mike65

http://www.beagle2.com/index.htm

http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/area/index.cfm?fareaid=9

for those interested in this low-budget expedition.



Mike.

Capt'n Midnight

Not looking good

http://www.beagle2.com/index.htm

Current status 25-Dec-2003 06:53 GMT
No signal has been received from Beagle 2 during the first pass of Odyssey

Was going to post "The Beagle has landed"

bus77

Knew it wasn't goin to work just by lookin at it.
To much "hope this works" not enough "this will work"
Good bless em , i know they had weight restrictions but i reakon the design could have been better.

Sparks

Originally posted by bus77
Knew it wasn't goin to work just by lookin at it.
To much "hope this works" not enough "this will work"
Good bless em , i know they had weight restrictions but i reakon the design could have been better.

Crap.
35 million, 24 months development time and led by a mad farmer from yorkshire.
Even if it's in a thousand pieces, it's in a thousand pieces on mars and that's more than anyone in the EU can say they've accomplished.
And just knowing it can be done is a damn good way to make sure it is done later on.

rob1891

and that's more than anyone in the EU can say they've accomplished

eh? England is in the EU. What gives?

albertw

Originally posted by Sparks
and that's more than anyone in the EU can say they've accomplished.

Erm... despite the media today playing up that this is a UK-US mission, Mars Express is an ESA project.

If beagle is lost the BBC will no dount soon be referring to it as a european project, if found it will be a great British endevaour ;-)

Cheers,
~Al

Sparks

Where did I say this wasn't an ESA project?
I said that noone else in the EU can say that they've had a project that made it to the surface of mars - and unless I missed a meeting relating to political boundraries, I'm perfectly correct in saying that.

Beëlzebooze

this is so damn frustrating!

Sparks

Looks like they didn't hear from Beagle on this pass either
They've not given up yet, but it doesn't look great

mike65

They're gonna have another go this evening.

This from the site weblog-

Mitch Harris, guitarist with Napalm Death, waiting with the Beagle 2 scientists proposed to his girlfriend at the time Beagle was scheduled to land on Mars. Whilst we await confirmation of the landing, we are pleased to say that she accepted.

ahhhhh!

Mike.

halenger

I had completely forgotten about this to be honest. Haven't watched the news in a couple of days.

That's very sad to hear.

I must say though it's very nasty how they do change from the British project to the European project when it's been lost, assuming they have.

I didn't like how they called it a British project all along the way. It wouldn't be up there at all had it not been for ESA.

Then again there is a fair amount of Anti-Europeanness in Britain at the moment and it's a touchy subject etc.

mike65

Guys, less politics more Beagle, its Christmas!

Mike.

Victor

First message from Mars 'Thank you for the Christmas present, what does "batteries not included" mean?'

Capt'n Midnight

http://www.beagle2.com/news/index.htm

Further opportunities to scan for a signal from Beagle 2 will be undertaken over the coming days. Tonight the radio telescopes at Jodrell Bank and Stanford University in California will again listen for the carrier signal from Beagle 2, while the next Mars Odyssey pass will take place tomorrow evening at 18.57 GMT.

Meanwhile, scientists are eagerly awaiting the arrival of the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft in its operational polar orbit on 4 January. Mars Express was always intended to be the prime communication relay for Beagle 2, and the lander team is hopeful that a link can be established at that time if it has not already been achieved with Mars Odyssey.

"We need to get Beagle 2 into a period when it can broadcast for a much longer period," said Professor Colin Pillinger, Beagle 2 lead scientist. "This will happen around the 4th January after the spacecraft has experienced a sufficient number of communication failures to switch to automatic transmission mode."
...

One possible cause of the communication failure is that the clock on Beagle 2 may have been reset as the result of a computer glitch. An attempt was made to reset the clock during this morning's Odyssey pass, the first to take place during daylight hours at the Beagle 2 landing site. The outcome of this "blind command" is still awaited.

Meanwhile, specialists at the Lander Operations Control Centre continue to investigate other potential reasons for the failure of Beagle 2 to call home, including a possible landing off course, a tilting of the spacecraft and a problem in fully opening the solar arrays which could result in a blockage of the weak signal from Beagle's antenna.

Sparks

mike65

Originally posted by halenger
I didn't like how they called it a British project all along the way. It wouldn't be up there at all had it not been for ESA.

Then again there is a fair amount of Anti-Europeanness in Britain at the moment and it's a touchy subject etc.

This from the Daily Telegraph via www.unison.ie

Mars Express, the first European mission to another planet, reached Mars on Christmas Day.
It carries three British scientific instruments and is designed to search for signs of water in the atmosphere and beneath the Martian surface. On January 4, the European orbiter will try to contact Beagle 2. For the past few days researchers have been relying on Nasa's Mars Odyssey to communicate with the lost British probe.

Now all is well and correct if the Torygraph has it right!

Mike.

mike65

Latest speculation suggests the beagle may have landed here- Oops...

Mike.

Ping Chow Chi

I think its lost forever ... still we have the two rovers that the states is putting there to look forward to.

the mail had a two page spread on the beagle - it did not mention europe once in it

I bet it does now though

Walter Ego

Latest reports that Beagle2 was savaged by Princess Anne's dog Dotty2 have been rubbished by a Palace spokesman.

Sparks

Er, mike - even with yorkshire math, it's hard to aim at mars and hit arizona

mike65

Er, mike - even with yorkshire math, it's hard to aim at mars and hit arizona

I meant in a big crater...!

Capt'n Midnight

http://www.beagle2.com/news/index.htm

The next press briefing will be held in the Beagle 2 Media Centre at 08.30 GMT on Sunday 4th January where the speakers will be Professor Colin Pillinger and Dr Mark Sims.

Capt'n Midnight

Meanwhile, the search for Beagle 2 goes on.

"We haven't in any shape or form given up on Beagle 2," said Professor Pillinger.

"We have realised that Mars Express is not in the orbit we originally expected, so our communication strategy is now different from the one that we explained at the beginning of last week."
...

Although Mars Odyssey will continue to search for the lander, Mars Express will soon become the prime communication link with Beagle 2. After reaching its operational polar orbit today, ESA's orbiter should pass over the Beagle 2 landing site regularly from 7th January onwards. Various modes of communication can be attempted during passes by Mars Express, although the team anticipates starting on 7th and 8th January with the standard 'hail and command' which has been used with Mars Odyssey.

The first four passes with Mars Express (7th, 8th, 9th and 10th January) are almost directly over the landing site and only 5 to 8 minutes long, so they are not ideal for communication, whereas the opportunities on 12th and 14th January are potentially much longer.

cf. http://newsfromrussia.com/world/2003/12/31/51934.html


[edit] I fixed your tags Capt. - syke[/edit] Ta.

colonelx

First of the four passes [today 7th of Jan] with Mars Express has failed to contact
beagle2 pity, they're still not giving up hope tho.

-colonelx

Redshift

Originally posted by colonelx
First of the four passes [today 7th of Jan] with Mars Express has failed to contact
beagle2 pity, they're still not giving up hope tho.

-colonelx

Yeah it's very dissapointing alright but I think at this stage the mission is lost:(

mike65

Its prolonged silence means it is surely lost, crippled or shattered among the windblown dunes on the desolate plain of Isidis.

Sniff! Sounds like someone at www.bbc.co.uk has been reading too much fiction!

Full story here - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3376193.stm

Mike.

full forward

Amazing pictures from Mars express.

BBC News

Sparks

And today there seems to be news that Mars Express beat the MER program to discovering evidence of water on mars

Capt'n Midnight

Mars Express sees its first water – scientific results

http://www.esa.int/export/esaCP/SEM8ZB474OD_index_0.html

dod

Awesome Mars Express pictures

Accompanying article

LFCFan

do you think there is a chance that a billion years ago the Sun was a lot bigger and Earth was more like a huge hot ball but Mars was more like what the Earth is like now? Then as the Sun shrunk Mars died and the Earth was allowed to develop into what it is now? The people of Mars could have sent colonists to Earth to continue it's survival in a big ship called GOD. The 2 astronaughts, Adam and Eve were the only 2 to survive but we're on some weird drugs and they thought they'd landed in paradise. When snakes started talking though they knew there was something up so they fled and started a family. It would explain a lot

Sparks

Er, no.

LFCFan

Originally posted by Sparks
Er, no.

Well, I believe it so there! I'm gonna start a new religion called Martianism and I'll worship that great big red planet in the sky! No more far fetched than a supreme being creating the earth in 6 days!

halenger

Scary thing is there's probably already such a religion...

GuanYin

Originally posted by LFCFan
Well, I believe it so there! I'm gonna start a new religion called Martianism and I'll worship that great big red planet in the sky! No more far fetched than a supreme being creating the earth in 6 days!

This isn't the place for this sorta discussion, take it outside boys!

Syke

Capt'n Midnight

Originally posted by LFCFan
do you think there is a chance that a billion years ago the Sun was a lot bigger and Earth was more like a huge hot ball but Mars was more like what the Earth is like now? Then as the Sun shrunk Mars died and the Earth was allowed to develop into what it is now? The people of Mars could have sent colonists to Earth to continue it's survival in a big ship called GOD. The 2 astronaughts, Adam and Eve were the only 2 to survive but we're on some weird drugs and they thought they'd landed in paradise. When snakes started talking though they knew there was something up so they fled and started a family. It would explain a lot

Total science fiction, imossible dya'see.

From the amount of N2 and O2 in the atmosphere and the projected rate of H2 loss to solar wind over the last couple of billion years ago you can show that there was an ocean about a mile deep on Venus.