Holding On To Hope For Beagle 2

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."

Comments

Space Trouble...

[danielrm26]

"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."

Or maybe they're using kilos as their base time unit. :)

System clock off?

[UFNinja]

That's what they get for not using ntpd. ;-)

It is so simple

[Spacecase]

1. Tell Starbuck's that the Martian Coffee market is untapped.
2. Tell them the best location for coffee sales is the landing site of the Beagle 2
3. Wait the 2 weeks for them to build the store
4. Order a tall latte and 1 hour of wi-fi
5. Connect to the beagle 2 using your local wi-fi
6. Drink your latte

This would cost the EU goverments about $7 (for the latte and 1 hour wi-fi) and they get a latte out of the deal!

Re:However...

[bluephone]

Yes, because Europeans use SPECIAL radio waves, different from the ones the rest of the world uses, and they only fit inside European satellite dishes.

The five stages of grief

[gad_zuki!]

1. Denial

2. Anger

3. Bargaining

4. Depression

5. Acceptance

I believe the Beagle team is firmly in stage 1 but after this quote, "At the moment, I am frustrated rather than concerned." some are already drifting into stage 2.

Re:Assuming the Best for Beagle's Power?

[IM6100]

Lithium-ion?

They better not call the Apple rep. Shipping and handling will deal a killing blow to the budget, even if the battery can be replaced for 'only' $99 by a qualified Apple tech.

Keep those R/C toys coming--Thx You Earthlings!!!

[Swai]

Martians should be confused with so much robots incoming.

Their thoughts must be:

• We are being invaded. Earth Attacks!!!.
• Veromartia there is a Santa!!!.
• Don't talk to them they are part of a 419 scam... 'Dear milky way brother....'.
• Earth's telemarketers are REALLY desperate.
• These must be the gadgets surplus trash from past Xmas (2002).
• Honey hand me my handlasergun.
• From all planets in the solar systems why they throw their garbage at us?.
• Mom is not from planet earth is from planet China, do you know it?.
• Damn Radio Shack they send these R/C and the batteries cost extra!!!.
• Heads up!!!.
• Those Earth's roaches sure are ugly!!!, call Terminex.
• Dear, do you remember that toy car you ate some years ago?, well their brothers are looking for him.
• Oh no, another season of BattleBots.
• Who ordered for these on Ebay.?
• Boy I don't find where to neuter this thing.
• Turn it off!!!, those British calling on the radio sure are annoying. (just a joke)

Regards and happy 2004!!!.

So let me get this right...

[Stephen Samuel]

3 tries to get 2 lines of pseudo-code right, and you're wanting us to believe that you could do a better job of designing an interplanetary probe????

250 Million miles and only one try to get it right.... Although I envy the opportunity to make the attempt, I don't envy the need for near perfection.

OK - who forgot to set the clock?

[saldek]

It's display is probably flashing 12:00.

Re:obvious question

[RALE007]

It's not as though human beings are in short supply or require any special tools to manufacture.

Speak for yourself. I think my human manufacturing tool is very special.

c:\

[Anonymous Coward]

C:\>ping Beagle 2

Pinging Beagle 2 with 32 bytes of data:

Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.

Ping statistics for Beagle 2:
Packets sent = 4, Received = 0, Lost = 4 (100% loss),

C:\>