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."

Comments

Re:May I be the first to say....

[erpbridge]

I can see Bush now....

Gentlemen, the Martians have attacked our spy sattelite. Attack now... We will impress them with our Shock and Awe strategy!

Behold, Our Superior airpower... What do you mean, we only have a couple light armament sattelites? Wasn't that what daddy's president made Star Wars for, and Empire Strikes back? Send out the X-Wings!

Guess we'll have to resort to the secondary Shock and Awe strategy... Moon them, then shower them with cute teddy bears.