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Mars Polar Lander Lost Again
IZ Reloaded writes "The Mars Global Surveyor during one of its latest scans of the area where the Mars Polar Lander was originally spotted, discovers that the spacecraft is no longer there! Space.com reports, "We conclude that our interpretation of these features was in error. This is not the location of the Mars Polar Lander. Because the landing uncertainty ellipse is so much larger than our images, and we do not have another candidate to which to target...we cannot continue to hunt for the lander," the MSSS site explains."
Damn martian tow-away zones.
REAL Polar Landers don't ask for directions.
how can it "not longer be there"? this just shows it was never there in the first place...
"(score:5, trying to intice comments about martians"
Proof again that when left to the responsibility of the government, they do things best. Then again, the martians could have taken it! Someday those little green bastards are going to get a knuckle sandwich.
in the movie where you cue the scary music?
perhaps the lander could have been covered by dust, or c02 frost -- therefore eliminating the weak detection seen before?
Maybe it will return one day as P'Lander to search for the makers.
It's THEM! THEY stole it to hide the truth from us! I told you!
Let me be the first to say:
Good job with the brooms, Martian dudes!
Hope you enjoy the hardware.
Sorry we forgot to pack any porn on the hard disk.
the spacecraft is no longer there!
I think what the poster meant is the spacecraft was never there to begin with. With limited resolution and enough random dark spots and hills there's bound to be a few that look like they might be a parachute and a lander.
Given how poor the images are I wonder why they ever thought this was the polar lander at all and not just natural features of mars?
AccountKiller
But you put forth some pretty darn convincing evidence! I recall an earlier Slashdot story that covered all this in detail, where you announc...
This is not the location of the Mars Polar Lander.
That was not the location of the Mars Polar Lander.
Move along, move along!
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
List of Mars Efforts, courtesy of Wikipedia
Items with bullets represent full or partial failures.
* 1960 -- Marsnik 1
* 1960 -- Marsnik 2
* 1962 -- Sputnik 29
* 1962 -- Mars 1
* 1962 -- Sputnik 31
* 1964 -- Mariner 3
1964 -- Mariner 4
* 1964 -- Zond 2
* 1965 -- Zond 3
1969 -- Mariner 6
1969 -- Mariner 7
* 1969 -- Mars 1969A
* 1969 -- Mars 1969B
* 1971 -- Mariner 8
* 1971 -- Cosmos 419
* 1971 -- Mars 2
1971 -- Mars 3
1971 -- Mariner 9
* 1973 -- Mars 4
* 1973 -- Mars 5
* 1973 -- Mars 6
* 1973 -- Mars 7
1975 -- Viking 1
1975 -- Viking 2
* 1988 -- Phobos 1
* 1988 -- Phobos 2
* 1992 -- Mars Observer
1996 -- Mars Global Surveyor
* 1996 -- Mars 96
1996 -- Mars Pathfinder
* 1998 -- Nozomi (Planet-B)
* 1998 -- Mars Climate Orbiter
* 1998 -- Mars Polar Lander
* 1998 -- Deep Space 2 (part of Mars Polar Lander spacecraft)
2001 -- Mars Odyssey
2003 -- Mars Exploration Rovers
* 2003 -- Mars Express
The problem is the atmosphere. Even on earth plotting a trajectory through air can be rather inaccurate. Everything from pockets of turbulance, to what direction and how hard the wind was blowing that day can drasticly effect the trajectory. It gets even worse if it broke up, or a parachute didn't deploy, or got tangled. This is the reason why they have a landing elipse that is hundreds of miles in diameter.
Click the randomly appearing Mars Polar Lander to win a Free iPod!
Err, wait...
Um, maybe I'm missing something, but have they checked for it on Google maps? I lost a black monolith once on the dark side of the moon, but it took all of two seconds to google for it. It was stuck in between some cheese.
If anyone else (besides the mod in question) thinks that the parent was showing insight (no offense Big Ad; I know it's a joke) please step forward. I guess I could give the benefit of the doubt and say the mod could have accidentally modded as insightful, but meant funny, but the more I read comments the more I find instances like this. Either it was a mistake, or a bad mod. Whichever one it was I say to everyone: META MODERATE! Please? Since I have set my preferences to send messages about how my moderations have been meta modded I have received ZERO messages about the meta moderating results. I have had mod points at least three or four times since then.
Heroscape, it's like legos combined with anachronistic wargames.
Which is exactly why GWB is funding Nasa's Mars mission: to take the fight against these little green terrorists to their own planet.
me? insightful? we need the ability to mod the modders.
;-)
-1 American
Since modding someone funny gives them no /. karma some have started using interesting or insightfull in it's place to better reward humor and this might explain the mod.
Also whenever I meta mod and find I need to check the 'context' MOST of the time I'm MM-ing a post several weeks old, only once or twice has the article been still open for posting.
That last bit said I still rarely see meta mods on my moderation anymore, though at one time I could expect to see about 20% of my mods meta'd, and within a month or two.
Mycroft
https://signup.leagueoflegends.com/?ref=4c3ed6600b6ea
They're hiding evidence of their affairs with space probes fom their spouses??
"Dude, where's my Polar Lander?"
Hack your mind out of its sandbox.
All these worlds are yours except Mars
Attempt no polar landing there
blakespot
-- Heisenberg may have slept here.
iPod Hacks.com
Who doesn't love spending money looking for broken crap? Its like the ebay of space.