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Beagle 2 Official Inquiry Released

Posted by timothy on from the unfortunately-only-lassie-can-read-it dept.

smasch writes "The ESA/UK Commission of Inquiry into Beagle 2 has released their report (PDF) on why the Mars lander Beagle 2 failed. While the report does not name a single cause for the failure, it does name several problems including the lack of funding, lack of margin in the design, and treating Beagle 2 as a scientific instrument rather than as a spacecraft. The report also made nineteen recommendations to prevent these sorts of failures on future missions. We have previously mentioned the Beagle 2 failure, although the official report was not released to the public at that time. The original story from MarsToday.com is available here."

4 of 113 comments (clear)

  1. Buggered Beagle by Mercedes308 · · Score: 0, Troll

    Teaches them for using crappy gear

    --
    And no, I couldn't give a shit what my karma is.
  2. Confusing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    I read land of fucking instead of lack of funding, please try less confusing verbalizations :)

    - ph0

  3. Spaceward Ho by flopsy+mopsalon · · Score: -1, Troll

    Technical details aside, I think we can all agree that the root cause of the Beagle 2's failure can be found in the society and culture from which it originates.

    Just think for a moment of the scientific community in Britain, cushily funded by the government and looked upon in their society as respected intellectuals. It's no wonder the Beagle team looked at the mars mission as a routine scientific chore no different from calibrating a microscope or analyzing the content of a meteor.

    Now think for a moment about scientist in the US, those beleagured, scrappy NASA workers who have to struggle for grant money and who are often looked upon by the general public as doddering Jerry Lewis types who go around incinerating unsuspecting astronauts. Yet it was their Mars effort that succeeded.

    Coincidence? I think not. It is precisely the adverserial environment that the NASA scientists daily toil in that gave them the resilience and adaptability to triumph (think also about the US tradition of steadfast frontiersmen and pioneers vs. British tradition of landed gentry and simple peasant folk). Ironically, you could say it is a Darwinian process.

  4. British go-getters have gone by Neoporcupine · · Score: 0, Troll

    I propose a cultural problem.

    I would like a Brit to reflect here on why nearly all of their major high profile public projects are doomed to spectacular failure.

    I get the feeling that the once great empire building country seems to have exported and lost it's go-getters and is stuck with second rate middle management who are hell bent on staying where they are, interfering with their own agendas and covering their butts later.