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Holding On To Hope For Beagle 2

Posted by timothy on from the maybe-they-just-don't-want-to-see-us dept.

slasher999 writes "Scientists are still keeping their hopes up that they will be able to revive Beagle via the Mars Express mothership on 4 January. On that date the ship will be in the correct orbit and may then be able to revive the lander. Current theroies as to what may have gone wrong include the possibility that the landers on-board clock is incorrect and that the lander has been transmitting at incorrect times. Funny, I thought I heard that as of yesterday the batteries on the lander would have been depleted unless the lander had received an order to recharge its batteries."

9 of 338 comments (clear)

  1. Typical Europeans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    can't do anything right.

    1. Re:Typical Europeans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait
      Duh, ever heard of Challenger?

      Or Columbia?

      Or BSE?

    2. Re:Typical Europeans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait
      How many Americans have died in the "conquest" of space?

      How many BILLIONS have been spent on futile fact-finding "missions"? How many ways could that cash have been better spent on earth?

      So we've been to the moon, and now we're looking at Mars. So fucking what? How does that improve anything here? It helps us "understand", but it changes fuck all.

      Hundreds of years from now, our descendents will look back at us and say "What the fuck were they doing? Sending tin cans into space when there were people dying of hunger and lack of medicine."

  2. That's cause it's coded with Linux. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    Everything has to be done explicitly with Linus' OS. Had it been loaded with Windows, the power update would have been automatic. Once again, F/OSS fails spectacularly.

  3. Re:However... by mOoZik · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    You're not being funny. For one thing, the Odyssey is designed to operate in a certain manner and in certain frequencies. Furthermore, the signal could be too weak to pick up here on Earth, so your smart ass comment is pretty ridiculous.

    --
    A blog like any other.
  4. Fault of OSS software onboard? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    It's pretty sad when a multi-million dollar project is lost just because someone was too cheap to spring for the $99 to load Windows, a proper OS, on the craft's computers instead of Linux. Yeah, those OSS cost savings are really kicking now eh, Colin?

  5. Re:Ugh by bonehead · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I'm a dumbass?

    You're the fuckwit that can't figure out how to connect an iPod to a computer without draining its battery.

    Is your daddy also your brother?

  6. Re:Batteries Running Down by bonehead · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    NASA, ESA, same thing...

    Both two organizations full of people smart enough to "get it there", but too fuckin' stupid to realize that once it gets there, it should actually be able to do something.

  7. Re:Nigerian scam anyone by snake_dad · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    It is sitting on Mars alright. The trajectory that it was on when released from Mars Express made it pretty hard to miss the planet. What state it is sitting in is what needs to be determined. Now go sit in the corner and be quiet until you are old enough to vote.

    --
    karma capped .sig seeking available Slashdot poster for long-term relationship.