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Mars Express' 2nd Boom Deployment Postponed

Posted by Hemos on from the missives-from-the-red-planet dept.

ricshaw2k4 writes "Releasing the second MARSIS radar boom from Mars Express has been delayed after a problem with the first boom was discovered. From the BBC "Officials said 12 out of 13 segments that comprise the first boom had deployed successfully, but segment 10 was not fully locked into place." Lets just hope segment 10 wasn't eaten by the Martians!"

2 of 91 comments (clear)

  1. Field Alignment Tool by Detritus · · Score: 4, Insightful

    You can have all of the mechanical engineers that you want, but in real life, nothing beats a mechanic with a hammer, who can give it a good whack in the right place.

    --
    Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
  2. Re:Stupid question by macpeep · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The dipole booms are 20 meters long each, and the center monopole boom is 7 meters. Even when folded into 13 segments, each bipole boom segment is 1.5 meters long. If they were folded 3 times, they would each be nearly 7 meters long and not fit into the launching rocket (a Soyuz).

    In general, you can pretty much assume that if you think the scientists have done a stupid error, then you just don't know the whole story.