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Mars Polar Lander Lost Again

Posted by samzenpus on from the alien-joy-ride dept.

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."

18 of 197 comments (clear)

  1. sigh... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Damn martian tow-away zones.

    1. Re:sigh... by sdpuppy · · Score: 4, Funny
      No, they actually found the Polar Lander 1/4 mile away with wheels and engine gone.

      That's what happens when you park your Polar Lander in the wrong neighborhood! :-)

    2. Re:sigh... by timothykaine · · Score: 4, Funny

      Damn martian tow-away zones.

      But officer, *all* the curbs on this planet are red!

  2. REAL Polar Landers.. by rylin · · Score: 5, Funny

    REAL Polar Landers don't ask for directions.

  3. Isn't this the point...? by Jeff_at_RAD · · Score: 4, Funny

    in the movie where you cue the scary music?

  4. dust, frost? by Use+Psychology · · Score: 5, Interesting


    perhaps the lander could have been covered by dust, or c02 frost -- therefore eliminating the weak detection seen before?

  5. V'ger by eno7 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Maybe it will return one day as P'Lander to search for the makers.

  6. Race you! by Frantactical+Fruke · · Score: 4, Funny

    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.

    1. Re:Race you! by Kjella · · Score: 4, Funny

      Sorry we forgot to pack any porn on the hard disk.

      Since it'd be roughly as exciting as seeing two dogs mating to them, I think that might be just as well...

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
  7. Misleading summary.. by Vellmont · · Score: 4, Informative


    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
    1. Re:Misleading summary.. by larkost · · Score: 4, Informative

      Two notes:

      To the best of my knowledge the best spy satellites have a resolution of about 4 inches. That is good enough to recognize that there is a license plate there, but not read it. I realize that hollywood regularly presents satellites as being capable of so much more, but that is hollywood.

      Getting a spy satellite into Earth orbit vs. getting the same hardware into orbit around Mars. And then add in the face that the satellite around mars has to do many jobs, and carry a really big antenna to phone home. All of a sudden it becomes clear why the spy satellite might have better resolution.

    2. Re:Misleading summary.. by MadCow42 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You can make a rough guess of their capabilities based on HUBBLE imagery, and add some factors for super-secret NSA abilities on top of that.

      Last time I was bored, I took a look at some raw Hubble images of Pluto, calculated the distance between Hubble and Earth on the day the picture was supposedly taken, and worked out the angle of view for 1 pixel of uninterpolated data from Hubble. Taking that angle down from Hubble's orbit height to Earth resulted in resolution just slightly better than 1" per pixel.

      The NSA supposedly has at LEAST Hubble resolution, if not remarkably better.

      (conspiracy theories, here we come...)
      MadCow.

      --
      I used to have a sig, but I set it free and it never came back.
  8. Bloody mind tricks! by Jugalator · · Score: 4, Funny
    We conclude that our interpretation of these features was in error.

    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!
  9. List of Mars Efforts by EuropeanGuy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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

    1. Re:List of Mars Efforts by thermopile · · Score: 5, Interesting
      There's a much better and much funnier synopsis of Mars attempts and failures here, as well as a record of a few other planets.

      Overall, we're really only about 33% successful at it. Space Travel is Not Easy.

      --

      "Diplomacy is something you do until you find a rock." --Richard Pound

    2. Re:List of Mars Efforts by Bob3141592 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Well, I'm sure we'll do better when we send human explorers to the planet.

      --
      In theory, there's no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is.
  10. Hurry! by werewolf1031 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Click the randomly appearing Mars Polar Lander to win a Free iPod!

    Err, wait...

  11. Re:The mods strike again by FullCircle · · Score: 4, Funny

    It wasn't me, but some people refuse to mod funny because the poster gets no karma for it.

    That's why you get underrated, insightful, interesting, etc on funny posts lately.

    --
    If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy. - James Madison