ESA's Beagle 2 Hits Signal Snag

Talking Goat writes "Space.com is reporting that the European Space Agency has run into a bit of a problem with it's recently launched "Beagle 2" spacecraft. An unexpected signal received from the probe has concerned controllers, and has delayed further systems checks. Let's hope this isn't a harbinger of things to come; history hasn't been kind to past Mars probes."

Comments

Last message heard from the Beagle

[AtariAmarok]

The last message heard from the Beagle:

"My old nemesis! What are you doing this far out? Curse you, Red Baron!!!! What are you doin-- YIPE YIPE [static}"

Re:What is this?

[Scaba]

The signal has something to do with a bunch of 1 x 4 x 9 black obelisks found on the surface of Mars. It said "We've changed our minds. Europa's cool now, but attempt no landings on Mars."

Better write up on the ESA site

[FlexAgain]

Look at Rescheduling of some Beagle 2 'cruise check-out' tests for a slightly more informative document.

It looks like the Solid State Mass Memory (essentially a modern replacement for the tape recorders found on older spacecraft) had a problem and to avoid writing over the data in the memory, they are delaying tests on Beagle. It's not really a Beagle problem, and it doesn't even look like a biggee for Mars Express. It's probably either a SEU (Single Event Upset) caused by some radiation whizzing through part of the electronics, or some sort of odd software bug (probably fixable with some patching).

Nothing much to see, move along here.