Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Mars Probe Probably Lost Forever

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the alas-poor-MGS dept.

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."

14 of 167 comments (clear)

  1. Missing? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Did they check Mars? I would bet that it is probably there.

  2. May I be the first to say.... by mhore · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...it was obviously captured by aliens.

    --

    Mmmm......sacrelicious.

    1. Re:May I be the first to say.... by Ridcully · · Score: 5, Funny

      "I claim this probe in the name of Mars! Isn't that delightful?" - Marvin

      Funny that. Aliens taking our probes, rather than the other way 'round.

    2. Re:May I be the first to say.... by Dunbal · · Score: 5, Funny

      Please, take our leader!

            Surely they wouldn't be THAT stupid, would they?

      --
      Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  3. It was a good run... by hedgemage · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:It was a good run... by jfruhlinger · · Score: 5, Informative

      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.

    2. Re:It was a good run... by dsci · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This is definitely still in the good luck category.

      Exactly. People can say what they want about NASA | JPL, but the bottom line is they put up some good stuff much of the time. What really got my eye was how they just 'asked' Opportunity to listen for it. That is, that those things are so dynamic in what they do and can be 'asked' to do simply amazes me.

      Who knew years ago when Opportunity (also past expected mission life, right?) was designed that it would be on-the-fly tasked to listen for another spacecraft's signal. That it was designed in this way is a testament to well planned engineering. IMO.

      --
      Computational Chemistry products and services.
  4. This just in... by ectotherm · · Score: 5, Funny

    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..."
  5. Any other options? by Bob54321 · · Score: 5, Funny

    "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.

    --
    :(){ :|:& };:
  6. Not a bad run by Schemat1c · · Score: 5, Funny

    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
  7. Re:What is with Mars? by toadlife · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.
  8. Voyager is going to keep its record... by surfdaddy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

    1. Re:Voyager is going to keep its record... by cyclone96 · · Score: 5, Informative

      does NASA still get anything from them?

      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_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.

      --
      Worst...sig...ever!
  9. Re:Time to update... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful
    It might be time to update the Mars Scorecard.... although we got some good work out of the MGS, it might be time to mark this one up for the green guys.


    You know, I mostly stopped commenting (or even reading) space related stories on /. long ago, because the commenters and moderators don't know jack shit about space or space exploration.

    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.