Giving Up on Mars Polar Lander

toast0 writes "NASA has stopped all attempts to communicate with the mars polar lander. Their press release is very brief, but notes that they will still attempt to find it with the Global Surveyor throughout February. " It's kinda sad really - but NASA's had lot of successes as well lately, which has been good to watch.

Comments

Simulation of landed operations at Death Valley

[stab]

Hi, I'm part of the MPL team, and thought you guys might like to know that we are taking the flight-spare MPL to a secret location in Death Valley, and running a complete simulation of operations as they might have been had it landed on Mars.

The point? To test the instruments and make sure they would have done what they are meant to, as a number will be reused in future missions (the Stereo Surface Imager in particular).

You can follow all the images and simulations if you're interested in what actual science was being conducted, at our official site www.marspolarlander.com

Cheers,
Anil Madhavapeddy - Ground Data Systems - Outreach
Mars Volatiles and Climate Surveyor

Re:Everybody talking about costs - WHAT COSTS?

[downwell]

The answer is: the Oceanographic community. Oceanographers explore everything from the violent coastal ocean to the abyssal depths, deploying precision instruments in a high-pressure, corrosive, electromagnetically opaque environment. And they do it for a whole lot less than NASA does. And they have a much higher success rate. And it could be argued that the oceans are a whole lot more relevant to the survival of life on earth than is space.

(for FY2000: NASA: $12.5 Billion
NSF ocean sciences: $220 Million-
which is not to say Oceanography does not benefit
from NASA, the military, etc, but I think the point is clear)

Jay Austin
Center for Oceanic and Atmospheric Sciences
Oregon State University

Don't judge NASA by one failure

[JustShootMe]

I really don't like the media's propensity (and, apparently, ours, to an extent) of judging NASA and our space program by a few failures. Sure, they get publicized more, but what about the untold missions that go off without a hitch? It's become so commonplace these days that rocket launches, and even space shuttle launches, have become just a footnote on an out-of-the-way place in the newspapers.

I wouldn't *want* NASA to have a 100 percent success rate - that would just tell me they're hiding the failures.

Technology, especially leading-edge technology such as this, is GOING TO FAIL occasionally. Don't read anymore into it than that. I think they're doing an admirable job, considering the resources they have available and the political climate they must work in.

If you can't figure out how to mail me, don't.