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Beagle II Successfully Separates
Control42 writes "After the long journey out, it seems that little Beagle II, the lander of the Mars express mission has successfully separated. If all goes well, the lander should touch down on Christmas Day. Seems that NASA has actually lost the edge in robotic space exploration." Reader chalker writes "In order to build public interest in the Mars Exploration Rovers 2004 missions landing in January, NASA has released a series of movie trailers (Flash enabled page, Windows Media and Quicktime formats) for what they are calling "M2K4". They contain quite amazing animations of the landings, as well as a professional artistic style typically seen in action movie trailers.
Additional videos on the launch, cruise, and landing challenges can be found at the JPL based mission site."
Of course, the ESA has the immense advantage over NASA that everyone uses SI units, rather than a mixture of metric and imperial ;-)
Still, its a long way down for Beagle 2 - hope it succeeds.
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Uhh, NASA has already been to Mars, multiple times.
So Esa has one probe and Nasa has two. Therefore Nasa is behind?
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
Why do you still have to think in terms of "losing edges"? The Mars Express mission will cooperate with NASA's "Mars Odyssey" to relay data back to earth. Competition is good, cooperation is better.
what would happen ? would there be a sudden roar of disbelief or would there be a "god created life there too" statement made, of course we havent decided what consitutes life yet (from our tiny perspective), can silicon or alternativ chemicals have life ? is life just a product of complexity or can simple systems have it too ? does it have to be carbon based ?
Anybody else read that and get kind of disappointed? I mean...I guess it would make it slightly more interesting, but EVERYBODY these days is turning things into action movie trailers. Hell, the whole "War on Terror" on the news seemed like a bunch of teasers and trailers for a big upcoming blockbuster (no pun intended).
I know they're trying to reach a broader audience, and I know they have to compete with Hollywood, but if they need to sink to the level of an action movie trailer to make science interesting then I think we are in trouble.
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That a government agency needs marketing and promotional materials? Maybe the x-prize or the Chinese advancements will finally get people back into the 'space' mindset again. We've kind of lost the forward thinking momentum of the first shuttle and moon mission launches where EVERYTHING in America stopped to watch it happen.
Imagination is the silver lining of Intelligence.
A story about an ESA mission contains 2 sentences about the mission and 4 sentences about NASA. Go figure.
The lack of cooperation comes solely from the self-centered Americans who don't want to "lose their edge".
And why is everybody always looking at space exploration as 'a race' or a 'competition' ?
What about trying to make an international Mars mission ?
I know that maybe ISS is not very useful, but it certainly is a success in terms of engineering and many countries took part in it.
What about doing the same for Mars ?
Iraq: war to save the U
... you tend to waste it.
NASA as a weak budget but it was used to very big fundings during the cold war.
In Europ space has never been a top priority and fundings have always been really limited. When you have less you try to optimize everything and you tend to do better for cheaper.
Look at the Pathfinder mission with Sojourner. It was a Nasa mission but a mission without a very big funding. It was a tremendous success.
Iraq: war to save the U
The lander is completely unpowered as far as propulsion goes. The separation was successful, but there is still plenty that can go wrong. And the same for the two NASA probes. Let's see how it all shakes out before making any conclusions.
How did this get modded insightful?
Viewing the science and exploration as a competition makes it appear like you are more interested in the nationalistic aspects of it than the scientific.
IF you have to discuss it, the "we've sent waaay more robotic explorers out there" is a pretty bad point.
I live in Denmark, we had Vikings; The vikings ruled the sea for a very long time. After that we had a LARGE fleet that was comparable to the english for the better part of 18th and 19th century.
Now we can just sit back on our asses for the next couple of decades and STILL have ruled the sea for longer than the americans...
This obviously translates into: Danish sailors kicks american sailor ass.
just like NASA kicks everyone elses ass because they went to the moon before everyone else.
"I don't know that Atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots." -George H.W. Bush
Seems that NASA has actually lost the edge in robotic space exploration.
:) ). There are 2 orbiting mars taking pix (one of which I have code helping to control the cams). NASA sends up 1 or more robotic missions per year. The beagle is EU's first real robotic mission. Other than the US, only Russia has done and robotic missions. NASA has not lost the edge.
Nasa is about to place several landers on mars shortly after beagle. They have landed 3 others on mars already (not including 2 that "landed"
They have lost their funding for various missions which makes them the same as Russia. They have had politicians control what missions take place (by providing moneys for their own local fat cats).
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Well, the edge might be in *current capability*, ie who has the most advanced probe out there. I mean, that's what having an edge is all about, being the best at the moment.
Now I don't know if Beagle 2 really is the best current probe out there or not, but if it is, then clealry ESA has the edge at the moment.
These movies were paid for by NASA, which mean they were paid for by me, and all us taxpayers. How come they're in DRM'd formats? Even if they want to use WMV, fine, but give me an unprotected download link.
In the past I've borrowed the VHS from a NASA ambassador and encoded it myself, but why should I have to?
exactly, it is an exciting time, because there will be 3 probes on mars!
i am not trying to say hey look "our probe is bigger than your probe" that was sort of started in the by the article itself...
and competition is good, maybe the ESA will find something NASA doesn't
I hope the spacecraft does well. I also wish it was possible to read an honest science story without the jabs from left field. Lost their edge? This is based on who's historical revisionism?
Is it rocket science for Slashdot to hire editors who would be considered satisfactory for any other publication to ensure that thousands of people do not have to have a moment of pristine delight spoiled by an editorial policy that rewards knee-jerk jingoism? And how is this even calculated when hours earlier photos were shown from the incredible Spitzer Telescope, which took off from the Cape Canaveral launch facility after being built between the U.S., U.K., and the Netherlands?
It's a simple backhanded comment like this that obviously makes a lot of people feel like they're being fed shit when they could be spending their energy more productively. Geek editor you are unfortunately thy worst enemy. Poster, keep it in your pants! Slashdot, please quickly hire some talent, dudes!
"Bu hu, look at what the Americans can do!" "Bu hu, we'll build or own GPS and you can get lost!" "Bu hu, the Euro is strong, the dollar is weak" "Bu hu, we saved you weakling European ass in WWI and WWII".
At least the academic world is less teritorial.
Whatever NASA does, ESA will get all the data they ask for.
Whatever ESA does, NASA will get all the data they ask for.
I hope, for one, that we plant the flag of humanity once we take that small first step on the surface of Mars.
Last time I checked we all belonged to that race.