Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Mars Crater Theory Tries To Explain Missing Beagle

Posted by simoniker on from the put-face-on-mars'-eye-out dept.

JayBonci writes "CNN is running a piece regarding the failure of the Beagle Mars probe being possibly attributed to a crater landing. It's an interesting story about the variety of forensics being used to try and pick up on the lost craft."

3 of 362 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Interesting... by Carnildo · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Did you read the article? The target area is 70km long by 45km wide. I don't think there's any area on Mars that big that doesn't have at least one large crater.

    --
    "They redundantly repeated themselves over and over again incessantly without end ad infinitum" -- ibid.
  2. This crater... by WolfWithoutAClause · · Score: 5, Interesting
    is a 1km diameter crater in the middle of a 70 by 10km square. That means there's about a 1 in 700 chance that Beagle actually landed in it. There's probably, a say, 1 in 10 chance that the landing bags blew up on landing.

    I don't think that's the way to bet somehow.

    --

    -WolfWithoutAClause

    "Gravity is only a theory, not a fact!"
  3. On the cheap is perhaps not so good by theolein · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I have wondered for a while on the logic and wisdom behind the Beagle mission. I found the idea of sending a 60kg lander without any guidance boosters or rockets, no matter how small, an incredibly bad idea. The probe seperated 3 million kilometers away from the planet and then carried on to mars and atmostpheric entry without any possibility of attitude or course correction. Just think about it, 3 million kilometers and even the smallest of deviations of attitude could have meant the probe arriving in the atmosphere on its side or even upside down.

    I somehow think that it probably arrived with an incorrect entry attitude and then burnt up on entry.

    Perhaps the next time around they'll add a few kilograms to the package for small attitude coreectional motors.