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Still No Contact from Beagle 2

Posted by Cliff on from the perk-up-your-ears-and-answer-little-guy! dept.

Many of you have submitted this, so this will be a condensing of the relevant information. WebfishUK writes: "The BBC has just released this story which announces the failure of the latest and possibly best chance to contact the British built Mars probe, Beagle 2. Given that Mars Express was designed to communicate with Beagle (unlike the earlier attempts with NASA's Mars Odyssey), this may indicate that something catastrophic has happened to Beagle 2." From Bromrrrrr: "[The] ESA is reporting that the Mars Express, which everybody was hoping would be able to get through to the poor lost puppy, has failed its first attempt. 'We have not lost hope yet to contact Beagle 2, but we also know that it has landed on an unforgiving planet,' said David Southwood, ESA's Director of Science." and I-R-Baboon adds: "The Mars Express mothership from the EU passed 350 km over the intended landing site of the Beagle 2 hearing only silence. Although nothing was heard, hope has not been given up yet, as scientists will keep trying until February, with more passovers of the Beagle 2's landing site on January 8th, 9th, 10th, 12th, and 14th." Additional updates can be obtained from the Beagle 2 homepage as well as from the ESA's homepage for the Mars Express. Here's hoping that the lander is only down, and not out.

3 of 637 comments (clear)

  1. The US will nuke the entire site from orbit by j_dot_bomb · · Score: 0, Redundant

    to be sure the Beagle dosent fall in enemy hands.

  2. likely failure modes by bani · · Score: 0, Redundant

    sadly the most likely failure mode is beagle 2 strewn in little pieces across the martian landscape. key systems in the lander went untested before launch, I guess they're tested now. :P

  3. Re:Chalk one up to American quality! by matfud · · Score: 2, Redundant

    >Sure there is. We have the strongest economy and
    >the largest GNP in the world. We have the
    >greatest technology (though I fear that may
    >change if we do not shape up) in the world. We
    >have the strongest military. We invented the
    >computer you are using to connect to the website
    >(also invented here) over the internet (invented
    >here) using broadband (invented here) or the
    >telephone (also invented here). Slashdot itself
    >was invented here and is hosted here.

    Thanks for that. America did not invent
    * the computer.
    * websites (or the WWW).
    * the telephone.
    * Broadband encompases many technologies, including 3G techs, not all of which can be claimed to be invented by america.

    Also, currently the EU has a larger GNP then America.

    I will give you the military though as you seem so proud of it.