Fingers Crossed for Beagle
Adam_Trask writes "Never has a spacecraft been built so quickly, on so little money, and been sent on such a long journey fraught with so many dangers. Beagle 2 has been carried to the vicinity of Mars by the Mars Express mothership, and released successfully to go its own way for the final leg of the journey."
Hip hip - Horray!
Matt Thompson - Actuality - Insert product here.
.. as a WWI veteran flying on his doghouse to Mars.
Available here.
This is Tranquility Base...the Beagle has landed!
Oolite: Elite-like game. For Mac, Linux and Windows
"When Beagle gets to the surface its power is almost spent and it must immediately open up and expose its solar panels to the sunlight to charge its batteries and run its systems. Too much of a delay and it will die."
:)
Sounds sortoff like the ipod. After a year in space the battery doesn't hold much of a charge.
"Beagle survives on the energy from its solar panels and has no way to clean them if they get dirty because of, say, a dust storm."
Havn't they considering using windshield wipers. They come as standard equipment on all cars but I guess on space probes they are an optional extra that wasn't purchased
-?-
How long before we can expect such technology in our cars? Such cars would just bounce back in a collision. Not to mention the potentials for bouncing airplanes!
Never has a spacecraft been built so quickly, on so little money, and been sent on such a long journey fraught with so many dangers.
I didn't know Ford made spacecraft!
"If you think you have things under control, you're not going fast enough." --Mario Andretti
Think of the environmental impact to outer space with all of that oil leaking from the British spacecraft.
Anyone else getting tripped up by the author's choice of referring to the nose cone as one word?
nose cone
nosecone.
nosecone?
WTF?
no secone? No Habla!
nosec one?
Oh! Nose cone! Sheesh!
You are checking your backups, aren't you?
It gets energized by laying in the sun, just like the dog in the comic, so I think its a good match.
This sig was generated by a barrel of trained kittens for SeXy_Red (550409).
Oh wait, that was another flying beagle.
The name beagle doesn't exactly inspire much confidence.
Pit Bull, Bull Dog or Rodesian Ridgeback would have had a better chance of surviving.
If you can read this sig - the bitch fell off.
I've been saving up a couple of excellent recent slashdot mis-spellings for just such an occassion:
1) "Analiser"
Something which makes one anal, I guess.
2) "Celibration"
To mark an important event by giving up sex?
It carries no passengers.
It has no propulsion system
It's not even airtight.
Instead of "spacecraft", wouldn't it be more accurate to call it a "box"?
... when reading the title? I thought that maybe Portos was in some real trouble on the next episode or something...
;)
had me worried
I needed the picture to figure it out. Getting old I guess. Damn kid journalists making up new words. Why when I was there age we had only 1 word and we liked it.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
I'm glad I still support copyrights.
I'm actually quite disappointed that I support copyrights.
"Bagel 2"
Ouch!
.
They will never know the simple pleasure of a monkey knife fight
If you do not want to limit yourself to just a measely little red planet hoever, you might want to pick up this book, often considered the definitive work on the universe.
Dr. Adams may well be most remembered for this work detailing not only travel through the universe in the heart of gold, but also covers travel through time also. There are lessons within this excellent tome that could even help you fly without the assistance of any mechanical devices. This is a must have book especially if you have ever pondered the secret of life, the universe, and everything.
Norris/Palin 2012
Fact: We deserve leaders who can kick your ass and field dress your carcass.
I think you'll find the missing ingredient is money...
Quote of the week:
Interviewer: "What happens if you find life on Mars?"
Prof.Colin Pillinger: "I'll find it a lot easier to get funding for the next mission"
Boring Old Fart (40, married, 3 kids...er no...make that 49, married, 3 grown up kids...it's been a long time)
That said, most everything they build is always missing one key ingredient. Maybe poor interface, maybe a critical technical componenet is under-engineered.
No offense taken. The problem is that since the 1980s, every engineering decision in the UK comes under a potential veto from accountants who it seems (according to management consultants) have such a powerful understanding of every subject under the sun that they are capable of making decisions based on instinct alone.
The end result is that you get things like a parchute regiment that carries 400lb of kit per man yet has parachute's made of toilet paper because the specified grade of nylon was 1p(1.5c) a sq. yard more expensive.
Hence the expression "To err is human, to really foul things up requires a computer and to make a right fucking mess that sinks a project completely requires an accountant".
Hmmmmmm..... Deep fried and look like Squirrel.
Theonlyuse of monkeys is to testthings onthem.Some peoplemay say"Hey That'scruel!"and myresponse is"I don't like monkeys
No. It's because CO2 is more fizzy than nitrogen.
Tony Blair: "I have extremely good news to report from Mars this afternoon. Our probe to Mars has found Saddam's missing weapons of mass destruction."
Don't they know some Yemeni men own Mars? This is old news, but three men from Yemen sued NASA for tresspassing as documented in this 1997 CNN story. According to the article these individuals have a 3000 year old claim on the red planet. What they do not realize is that my past life regressionist told me in a past life more than 5000 thousand years ago aliens gave Mars to me. Therefore, their claims are null and void.
"Never has a spacecraft been built so quickly, on so little money, and been sent on such a long journey fraught with so many dangers."
Never has Churchill been so abused by such poor parodies.