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Beagle 2 Probe Lands; No Signal Received Yet
securitas writes "The BBC reports that Europe's Beagle 2 Mars lander has failed to broadcast its landing confirmation signal. While project leaders are trying to put a brave face on it, the failure is seen as a major setback. The Beagle is out of broadcast range but another contact attempt will be made later today, when they hope a signal will be detected. Another failed Mars mission will solidify Mars' reputation as a spacecraft graveyard. More at icWales and News24."
The Martians destroyed the Beagle 2. They don't want us f-ing up Mars the way we've f-ed up Earth. Don't blame 'em really.
People say I'm crazy, I got diamonds on the soles of my shoes...
Looks like Mars didn't like its gift this Season.
Not much information is available on the net about more details on the landing. I guess the current Mars satellites don't have enough resolution for them to photograph the expected landing site
It's like space probes are from Venus and Mars is from.. umm..
nm.
Happy solstice and present-exchange day.
The EU was using the metric system and the Martians are on the English system. Ft. lbs. != Newton meters.
*rolls eyes*
...A Martian parent whose christmas shopping was running late manages to get "a great deal" on an expensive Earth-made toy for his/her child...
If it was running FreeBSD it would not have failed!
because their country uses metric units!
* The Soviet Union used metric units, and all of their probes failed except one. So did the '96 Russian mission.
* The Customary-using U.S.'s Mariner 4, 6, 7, and 9 worked, as did Viking 1 and 2, and Mars Observer; only Mariner 3 of the Mars missions failed.
* The U.S. Federal Government most far-reaching metrification laws went into effect after Observer was launched, and things have been 50-50 since, reflecting the semi-converted state of the U.S.
Obviously, there is a direct correlation between societal use of metric units and failure of Mars missions! If we are to explore the Red Planet, we must de-metrify now!
Fact is: if we keep crashing stuff into Mars, they are going to get pissed off eventually and launch a WAR ON TERROR. They will bring their fleets of ships to Earth to hunt out the terrorist leaders responsible; capture them and then broadcast the medical examination (different orifice though)... as a warning to others.
michael, not to nitpick on the slightly altered headline, but the "Beagle 2 Probe Lands" is little inaccurate. They just don't know if it landed - that's why they are hoping to receve the landing confirmation signal.
From the article:
Well, I suppose that could be considered a landing of sorts. :)
If it was running FreeBSD it would not have failed!
Well the probe is dead isn't it? It must have been running BSD then...
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
So if Mars is only slightly larger than the moon, then I suppose I'm only slightly larger than a 20-pound, 3-foot toddler.
But I see your point.
Patrick Doyle
I mod down every jackass who puts his moderation policy in his sig. Oh, wait a sec....
I'm curious: which of these outfits do you think is American? BBC, or Reuters?
At the very least, it will give the conspiracy theorists more "facts" for their side. I bet that face on Mars is smiling today.
Oh where, oh where, has my little dog gone... oh where, oh where can he be...?
---
Never criticize religion on Slashdot. You will be modded down for "Troll" no matter how factual it is.
We keep sending them, and the Martians keep shooting them down.
The few that were allowed to land were carefully directed to desolate areas, well away from the Martian civilization.
and put 120mm cannon on it while you are at it. Just in case.
... and nothing has been heard? Honestly, who in their right minds would have key communication for their project lie with the agency (NASA) that stands to be most embarassed by any Beagle success? You can bet China will not entrust anything important to NASA.
... assuming they don't get jammed.
The one hope is that Jodrell picks up something
Love a good conspiracy.
"Consensus" in science is _always_ a political construct.
Amazingly enough, Google gives me 11,800 pages for Theroy .
But "the Roy" gets me 66,100, and the first is a great artist with a really lousy web site.
"Art Bell" returns only 56,600.
Could take a while to read them all, theroetically.
This Like That - fun with words!
If the missions in the seventies were made using 1960's technology, then it's a fair bet to suggest that a mission in 2003 might be based on 1980's technology (just.)
Now, look at Britain in the 1980s: The Sinclair QL. Rover. Jaguar. Lucas.
Is anyone surprised? ;-)
(Disclaimer - this is not a troll, I'm British, it's a funny. This is just typical British cynicism. So if you're American and thinking of modding this down because you think I'm being mean to Brits, honestly, I'm not.)
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
I bet NASA is considering changing the landing position of one of the US rovers to rendezvous with the Beagle2. That would be awesome! Don't give up!
Some people shouldn't be allowed to watch crappy mars movies from 2000....
How long before we see another one of these landers for sale , dirt cheap, on eBay (Buyer must arrange their own shipping) ?
If you don't understand anything I post, please accept that I ate paste as a small boy...
1996 Soviets launch Mars 96, which fails after launch and falls back into Earth's atmosphere.
Reminds me of the episode of Gilligan's Island where a Mars probe lands on the island, and JPL thinks its on Mars. That same day the castaways were collectiong feathers to make Lovee's dress and also accidently left the fire on under a brew of glue used to repair the shattered probe lens. The glue pot exploded, taking the feathers with it and landing and sticking on the castaways. JPL thought they were looking at Chicken People! When the captain was trying to strangle Gilligan for forgetting to turn off the glue fire, one of the JPL personell remarked, "Look, the big one is trying to get the little one to lay an egg!" Classic.
Table-ized A.I.
The Apollo landings were all hoaxes.
Similarly we can explain the fact that supposedly 2 out of 2 Mars landers were successful almost 30 years ago while current Mars landers (which cost about the same in real dollars) are likely to fail:
The Viking landings were hoaxes.
I mean to believe otherwise would cast into doubt that the sociopolitical changes of the last 30 years were a true advance.
This is probably a sign that Leif Erikson didn't actually discover the New World. The supposed chronology is that in 1000AD Leif Erikson discovered the New World (aka "Vinnland") at the same time Iceland converetd to Christianity.
That Roman Catholic authorities would have suppressed knowledge of such a discovery for hundreds of years is no more plausible than that little Viking boats navigated harsh arctic waters to the New World hundreds of years before Christopher Columbus, with his enormous merchant ships, succeeded in crossing the Atlantic and setting foot there.
I mean to believe otherwise would cast into doubt that the sociopolitical changes of the first half of the last millenium were a true advance.
Seastead this.
It's long odds, but even long shots happen to sombody. But if it is us, and I'm one of the last surviving ancients when the young races come, I'm not wearing some dumb old robe and saying metaphysical gibberish to their equivalent of Kirk or Sheridan, no way.
Who is John Cabal?
Mars, for one, does not welcome their new Earth overlords.
I plan to tell them that if they need advice from the ancients just to defeat the shadows/make peace with the klingons/knarfle the garthak/whatever, they should get it from a species that never invented the big-mouth-billy-bass.
Who is John Cabal?
Yeah... and if you start having electronics problems on Venus, you can just grab a cup of solder from that river, over there, and use it to make repairs.....
Free Software: Like love, it grows best when given away.