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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."
Did they check Mars? I would bet that it is probably there.
Was that the one crushed by the Decepticons? I don't think we'll be recovering it anytime soon.
...it was obviously captured by aliens.
Mmmm......sacrelicious.
You got to admit, we've been having some fantastic luck with some of the recent Mars missions. Unfortunately, the luck has either been fantasticly good or fantasticly bad.
We just have to keep reminding ourselves that sending something millions of miles through space to a speck of rock and have it function so well for so long is an amazing achievement in and of itsself.
A pink rabbit beating a large bass drum was just spotted in the vicinity of Mars. Communications with the Mars Probe are expected to resume momentarily... ;)
"Nature bats last..."
"either because its orbit has shifted since last contact, or because it isn't reflecting enough sunlight to be visible"
So either it wasn't there or it was there but they didn't see it. I think that has to pretty safe to say they have limited the problem down considerably.
:(){
Why are humans, a plague on this planet, trying to gain dominion over the others?
If God had meant us to fly, he'd have given us rocket engines, day one.
(Yes, tongue is firmly in cheek.)
668: Neighbour of the Beast
Continual probing of a heavenly body for almost 10 years? Beats my record by a long shot.
"Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everybody agrees that it is old enough to know better." - Unknown
1) Because it's fairly close to us?
2) Because there is evidence that there used to be water on the planet, which means it's possible there used to be life there?
3) Because it's atmosphere is relatively mild, which makes it easier to build machines that can stand it?
4) Just because?
I don't always use unix-like operating systems; but when I do, I prefer FreeBSD.
for a while longer. The two spacecraft, launched in the mid 1970's, are almost 30 years old. And they're still working, 9 billion miles away. They're well beyond the orbit of Pluto. Now that's impressive. Not to take away from Mars Global Surveyor or the twin rovers.
You know, I mostly stopped commenting (or even reading) space related stories on
You just got added to the wrong column of that scorecard.
Mars Global Surveyor was a huge win in Earth's column. The spacecraft returned friggen superb results, for far longer than we expected. We didn't get "some good work out of MGS," we got vast amounts of good work out of it.
God damn, I wish Slashdot quit posting space related stories.
There truly is nothing more to see on that rock, for we have all seen the countless images from mars.
We've all seen pictures of the top of Mt Everest. Does that mean we should no longer climb mountains? We have seen pictures of the ocean floor. Should we no longer SCUBA dive? By no means! We explore because it is human nature to test our limits, to push the boundaries, to boldly go where no man has gone before.
We have not even seen one tenth of one percent of the Martian surface, yet there "is nothing more to see". Olympus Mons is the largest volcano in the Solar System, three times as tall as Mt Everest, but who cares. There is nothing to see. Tourists flock by the millions each year to take in the Grand Canyon. The Valles Marineris is the deepest canyon system in the Solar System. Five times deeper, and hundreds of times longer, it makes the Grand Canyon look like a tire rut. But who cares. We've seen a few pictures of a couple of Martian rocks, so there's no point in going to the Valles Marineris. Well, Here's a picture of some Earth rocks, and here's a link to some maps. So now you don't ever have to leave your house.
As for Mars being lifeless, we do not *know* that there is no life on Mars. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. Why, Opportunity could find lichen on a rock tomorrow afternoon.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
Same thing. First, verify it's where it's supposed to be. Second, if the resolution is good enough (and they weren't sure it would be) see if it seems to be oriented correctly.
If it's not where it's supposed to be, then there's a partial explanation of why it's not responding -- it's off course -- and also tells them their options are limited to setting it straight again. If it is, but it's oriented incorrectly, then the batteries are not getting recharged and you focus on getting it oriented correctly so it can get power again. If it is present, oriented correctly, and still not responding, then you've got a different set of options.
More information can only help.