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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."

1 of 338 comments (clear)

  1. Pillinger's statements are ridiculous... by mbone · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This is ridiculous, and I for one cannot believe that Prof. Pillinger keeps saying it.

    Unlike the NASA orbiter, which might conceivably not be able to understand the Beagle's transmission, Jodrell Bank is looking for its radio carrier (i.e., just for the existence of a transmission at all). It should be able to see it. That's what radio telescopes do, after all - and Jodrell Bank has been looking at space probes since the 1960's.

    Moreover, all of Mars is well within a Jodrell Bank beamwidth at 500 MHz, so it doesn't matter where the thing is on Mars - Jodrell Bank should see it. And it's too much to believe that operators at Jodrell Bank, Westerbork and Stanford all screwed up such a simple measurement.

    This spacecraft is almost certainly lost; I would rate it's chance of recovery at much less than one per cent.