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Mars Probe Probably Lost Forever
David Shiga writes, "NASA's silent Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) spacecraft is likely lost forever. The space agency attempted to take a picture of the 10-year-old spacecraft using the newer Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, but did not detect it, either because its orbit has shifted since last contact, or because it isn't reflecting enough sunlight to be visible. NASA has now ordered its Opportunity rover to listen from the planet's surface for MGS's radio beacon. If that fails, the agency may call on the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft to join the search. But MGS may already have run out of power and NASA officials are not optimistic about recovering it."
Well you could just click on the link to RTFA and find that it happened on the 2nd of this month. (This month is November if you're _really_ not paying attention.) Or you could put "mars" into the search bar for Slashdot and find this article from about a week and a half ago.
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
The Global Surveyor probe completed its primary mission in 2001 and was in an "extended mission" phase. While its extended mission was to last until 2008, it was already essentially on bonus time. This is definitely still in the good luck category.
Actually, the Mars Global Surveyor finished its mission, and had long outlasted its original mission scope when the failure occurred. While unfortunate, this failure isn't wholly unanticipated as the craft was "out of warranty" as it were.
We all know what to do, but we don't know how to get re-elected once we have done it
If he hadn't intended us to look at porn, he wouldn't have given us opposable thumbs.
does NASA still get anything from them?
9 . They don't get tracked much, however, because the science they are returning has been surpassed by other probes. They've basically become an experiment in how long satellites can still function.
Absolutely. Voyagers 1 and 2 are still doing significant work, since they are so distant and still functioning. They have begun to encounter the outer reaches of the solar system, where the influence of the Sun ends and interstellar space begins. NASA believes they recently crossed the termination shock and may be approaching the Heliopause. More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heliopause
It's going to be a very, very, very long time before another probe gets out as far as the Voyagers are (if Pluto Express lasts that long, at least 20 years). Voyager gets a fairly decent chunk of Deep Space Network tracking time because of the importance of what it is doing.
The oldest satellites still functioning are Pioneers 6,7, and 8, which are all around 40 years old and still ticking. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_6,_7,_8_and_
Worst...sig...ever!
No, none of these were multi-billion dollar missions.
MGS cost something like a quarter billion bucks, iirc, and the pair of rovers together was somewhere north of $800 million.
That's the prevalent meme - but the reality is that space based nuclear power has gotten steadily less controversial. The Mars Science Laboratory Rover will almost certainly be nuclear powered - and the proposal to do so has drawn nary a peep.
Technically, the Voyager probes use radioisotope thermoelectric generators, which can produce 80% of its full-rated power even 20 years after initial assembly of power generator. It's likely that the Voyager probes will continue to work for at least another 30 years or more!
It will be very interesting to see how long Cassini--which is powered by RTG's--continue to run orbiting Saturn.
Here is Google Mars.
In Repressive Burma, it's not just your connection that dies. slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=314547&cid=20819199