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

Assuming the Best for Beagle's Power?

[mbathgate]

A little Google Newsing reveals a number of conflicts regarding our little friend's batteries.

The most recent BBC Article seems to have the illustrious Professor Colin assuming the best:

"We need to get Beagle 2 into a period when it can broadcast for a much longer period," said Professor Colin Pillinger.
"This will happen around the 4 January after the spacecraft has experienced a sufficient number of communication failures to switch to automatic transmission mode."
This means Beagle will then be transmitting permanently during daylight hours. And, by then, Mars Express will be in prime position to listen for its "baby".

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?!)!

Re:it needs ordering to recharge it's batteries???

[deglr6328]

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.

Re:Nigerian scam anyone

[snake_dad]

Mostly right, but you are wrong when you call the Beagle 2 an ESA product. Mars Express is, but Beagle 2 is a privately funded UK project. It was created by professor Colin Pillinger and a whole bunch of volunteers. From what I can make out from the briefings that I've seen, Colin is an exceptional guy, and it breaks my heart to see his puppy sitting on Mars, unresponsive. So far...

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...