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Mars Crater Theory Tries To Explain Missing Beagle
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."
[homer] D'oh [/homer]
It was aliens. We know they don't want us poking around their planet and are shooting down our probes. Time to take a hint. I think the Venusians are less hostile anyway.
No no, see he did it.
CC Licensed Serialized Story and Podcast: Ingenioustries
I don't think that's the way to bet somehow.
-WolfWithoutAClause
"Gravity is only a theory, not a fact!"I mean, if it landed hard enough to make a crater, I'm sure it probably stopped working entirely! ;)
You are not the customer.
Would that make it the longest hole-in-one in History?
R.Comic Theory:
Marvin the Martian just got a new barbecue grill for Christmas.
Conspiracy Theory:
World governments chipped in to send the barbecue grill to Marvin so as to appease the martian and prevent a loud Earth-shattering Kaboom!
Solution:
Get Duck Dodgers to get our grill back.
This is an exciting time for Mars exporation with two rovers and a Beagle arriving over the period of a month or so.
Unfortunately the Beagle 2 seems to have followed the Simplified Planetary Local Approach Trajectory that has been so popular with recent Mars landers.
This is quite depressing, but Beagle 2 was a bit of a shoestring mission from the beginning. There's a reasonable chance that one of the NASA rovers will survive, though this is by no means a sure thing.
Even ignoring the technical challenge of having everything work perfectly, the landscape of Mars is quite capable of swallowing up one of these landers without a trace. A poorly placed pile of rocks or a deep gully and you're history.
I think that eventually we will have to send people to Mars, not because of the scientific reasons but just to satisfy our curiosity about what actually happened to all these lost landers.
G.
From this article:
[The crater] was only revealed by close-up pictures of the site taken by another NASA orbiter, Mars Global Surveyor, minutes after the British probe was supposed to have landed last Thursday.
"minutes after" ????
here's a mapthat shows a couple (from really far away).
Isidis Planitia is at the equator, 1/4 in from the right - there's a big crater under the "a", but you can see others...
and here's a close-up
The gray circular area on the right, in the middle, is the area in question - the crater you can see under the letter "a" in the previous map is the one that's just barely cut off on the right in this one... I think the one they think the probe is in is the one slightly north and about an inch to the west of that one.
I'm not sure when these were taken, but I was looking at them back in the spring, so they've been up for a while, i.e., not since only "minutes after" the probe disappeared...
AND, as you can see, it's very easy to tell that there are craters there - and I'm not even a scientist, nor do I have access to ALL the pix of mars...
-bs
That that is is not that that is not. That that is not is not that that is.
So what they're telling us is essentially:
Beagle2 is sent into orbit by EU.
Beagle2 rides EU's rocket.
Beagle2 cratered.
Beagle2 disconnected.
EU: anyone there?
Now, my knowledge of astronomy and all related things extends about as far as "Look. The moon!", but if you can get shots of the crater like this, then how can the probe be "buried" in the crater so far as to not be able to communicate? We're lookin' right into it, there.
Was that photo from Earth? Was that photo from another probe? Do we never see that view from Earth?
Seems like the damn thing just broke. Admit it.
You know what?
KAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHN!