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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."
You guys must realize that neither the Odyssey nor Earth-based radio telescopes were tested with the Beagle 2. Only the Mars Express orbiter was specifically designed and tested to communicate with the lander.
A blog like any other.
Is that damn thing running on metric time? Didn't we agree on standard time?
The BBC article seems to imply that Beagle will use solar power to transmit a signal. Perhaps as a fallback if the batteries have failed?
The most recent BBC Article seems to have the illustrious Professor Colin assuming the best: The Beagle's got a 42-cell Lithium Ion power source, so assuming that was previously charged (why wouldn't it be?!) then it should last for some decent amount of time. That being said, transmitting continuously for 12+ hours a day doesn't bode well if the probe never got the message to unfold its solar panels (shouldn't that have been the next step after the airbags deflated?!)!
If you post, they will mod it.
It is programmed to recharge them automatically...if the solar arrays properly opened. That said let's face facts, Beagle 2 is dead. And despite all the insipid 'pfft it was British what do you expect' jokes already posted to this story, I think this result should be marked as a very dissapointing and unfortunate outcome. Think of the scientists who have spent the past ~6 years of their lives working on this project (Collin Pillinger being the most notable). This must be positively crushing for them. The engineering on the lander was absolutely incredible, look at the design of the instruments Beagle2 carried, some of them are downright elegant; a tiny single chip radiation detector, a hot thin film wind speed and direction monitor, a fully functional gas chromatograph that could nearly fit in your hand, there is a dust sensor, UV sensors, microscope with multispectral LED illumination, a mossbauer spectrometer, an atmospheric gas oxidation sensor little more than a centimeter across, a subsurface burrowing mole, pressure and temperature sensors, and a high resolution CCD camera.
Contrast this with the NASA Mars Rovers' 3 experiments and the fact that all the science on Beagle2 had to be squeezed into less than ~100 Lb. while the Rovers weigh 10X that and there's no denying the unbelievable effort that the scientists and engineers must have put into its assembly.
This is a sad day for science that could have been, but also a testament to what could be done given limited resources and a small budget.
- "Hear that?! The percolations are imminent! Cease your ingress!"
If you post, they will mod it.
That said, I agree, it's a massive bummer. I was really hoping that this current crop of Mars probes would all succeed.
Dude, I think I can see my house from here.
First of all, it's ESA, not NASA. Second, yes, it is automatic.
In JPL's defense, the unit conversion problem was the fault of the contractor in Colorado, Lockheed Martin, which fed JPL the English units. JPL's failure was only not "recognizing and correcting" that error.
The craft was made against all odds on a shoestring budget, in record time, and within crazy weight limits. Because of the weight constraints several backup and/or extra communications systems could not be added. Anyone who compares this lander to Pathfinder, the MER's, or any other NASA project is out of his mind...
karma capped
So, during design, the only available method of communication would be Mars Express. It was already known that for several days after landing, MEX would not be in position to talk to the lander (due to the need to change its orbit from equatorial to polar).
Thus they had to plan for the lander to stay alive and healthy on its own for at least 10 days. That is why it was programmed to automatically recharge its batteries as soon as the solar panels were unfolded and the sun would appear.
karma capped
Yup... All these folks ready to give up on a "shoddy euro spacecraft" are probably forgetting all the months of searching for NASA's Polar Lander, and Jodrell Bank and Westerbork observatories pitching in to do their part in that search.
karma capped
Basically, if Beagle 2 doesn't wake up and start singing, we will probably never know why.
Brackets contain world's first nanosig, highly magnified:[.]
oh dear, some facts...
firstly, beagle2 charges its batteries automatically.
secondly, the airbag did fail its first tests, but it did pass its final test (there was not enough time to test further).
sources? the bbc - they made a great 2 part documentary which followed beagle2 from genesis to launch.