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Lost Beagle2 Probe Found 'Intact' On Mars
New submitter Stolga sends this report from the BBC:
The missing Mars robot Beagle2 has been found on the surface of the Red Planet, apparently intact. High-resolution images taken from orbit have identified its landing location, and it looks to be in one piece. The UK-led probe tried to make a soft touchdown on the dusty world on Christmas Day, 2003, using parachutes and airbags — but no radio contact was ever made with the probe. Many scientists assumed it had been destroyed in a high-velocity impact.
The new pictures, acquired by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, give the lie to that notion, and hint at what really happened to the European mission. Beagle's design incorporated a series of deployable "petals," on which were mounted its solar panels. From the images, it seems that this system did not unfurl fully. "Without full deployment, there is no way we could have communicated with it as the radio frequency antenna was under the solar panels," explained Prof Mark Sims, Beagle's mission manager from Leicester University.
The new pictures, acquired by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, give the lie to that notion, and hint at what really happened to the European mission. Beagle's design incorporated a series of deployable "petals," on which were mounted its solar panels. From the images, it seems that this system did not unfurl fully. "Without full deployment, there is no way we could have communicated with it as the radio frequency antenna was under the solar panels," explained Prof Mark Sims, Beagle's mission manager from Leicester University.
Dammit! First it's spy satellites watching my every movement on earth, and now you can't even have privacy ON MARS!
AntiFA: An abbreviation for Anti First Amendment.
Parachutes? Isn't the atmosphere like 98% thinner than Earth? That'd work about as well as parachuting onto the moon.
Despite the fact that I know that the probe's namesake was the HMS Beagle, of Darwin fame, the news that a lost beagle has been found on mars still conjures up an enormously sad image of a small dog, curled up tightly; but still frozen solid, in the vast emptiness of the martian landscape.
"Without full deployment, there is no way we could have communicated with it as the radio frequency antenna was under the solar panels,"
Perhaps the placement of the antenna was a design flaw? Placement of the antenna that did not depend on success of unfurling is a lesson learned.
Congratulations on your near success.
Seriously - you did a lot better than some other much better funded probes did.
Colin Pillinger dies after brain haemorrhage http://www.bbc.com/news/scienc...
Quick someone send it the command to roll over!!
This might be a good mission for the old wheeled vehicle with an arm. Go to this location, then attempt to unfurl the panels.
Designing the antenna to be "hidden" by the 5 "leaves" is absurd. This provides more evidence supporting ground-based probes shoud be using nuclear power sources. Spirit, Opportunity, Philae... when will we drop the nonsensical arguments about sending nuclear power sources to space?
There's a white dot directly above the Beagle, I wonder if that's a snapped-off solar panel petal.
Obama's lost transcripts were also found.
Turns out, get this, he was nearly suspended for selling weed in the quad!
Oh yea, and he was a straight D student, except in Advanced Cultural Marxism and Implementing Alynskism where, surprisingly he got a C and a C+.
That darned Obama, what a tool.
Remember folks, socialism is for the people, not the socialists!
demi5E. You don't may be hurting
Now that we know where it is, and a rough idea on what's wrong, I wonder if we can send something down to get Beagle operational. I know it would most likely be more efficient to send out a new probe witht he same abilities (like we have), but I like the idea of fixing something on Mars.
If only the team leading this groundbreaking, ultra-low-budget probe to Mars had hired all you absolute experts.
Little probe, lonely on mars, seeks companionship
Or maybe just someone to listen
Please respond
Maibox empty for 11 years now
Have you forgotten me?
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
So given that we know where to find it and could use the orbiter to send a strong, tightly-confined signal that its (poorly placed, apparently) antenna might have some small chance of detecting - Any possibility that we could revive it at this point, send it some sort of "reboot and try again" signal?
Maybe NASA can go bump it with a rover a couple of times......you never know....always works on my B&W TV!
just sayin
"Without full deployment, there is no way we could have communicated with it as the radio frequency antenna was under the solar panels,"
Perhaps the placement of the antenna was a design flaw? Placement of the antenna that did not depend on success of unfurling is a lesson learned.
I'm amazed that you actually had to ask that question . . . and even more amazed that you were modded "Insightful" for it.
Knowing what failed is valuable. Now instead of engineers looking at rockets and/or parachutes, they can concentrate on the panel deployment system. Maybe they overlooked something and it was more easily fouled by dust than they thought.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
USA > UK.
USA USA USA
I would guess that the solar panels are supposed to charge the batteries. Batteries can fail pretty easily at very low temperatures, and a lot of spacecraft need energy to keep warm in addition to running the electronics. In all likelihood it has been without sufficient power long enough for the onboard "perishables" like batteries to be useless.
From the article:
The failure cause is pure speculation
You said
The article stated that they did have some idea why that design failed.
What in the article supports your assertion? They gave a guess after they said it was only a guess. Saying they have "an idea" implies there is some proof to back up the "idea" which they do not have yet.
There is more than enough here to repeatedly test landing and deployment.
Are you saying they did not do that before the original launch? I'm pretty sure they had rigorous testing before, guessing at the failure mode and then doing testing to see if your new design works to prevent your guessed failure mode is simply foolhardy.
That introduces its own drawbacks and failure modes.
Almost none of which leave you without any communications whatsoever if it makes it down to the surface in one piece as the Beagle MAY have. It eliminates a whole component of the system (solar power) and a system with one whole less aspect to worry about is inherently more robust.
It also SOLVES a whole class of problems dealing with cold.
And the reasons why they didn't choose that other system (such as not having access to plutonium 238) still apply.
Perhaps then THAT is the problem to work at rather than guessing why the petals failed and just HOPING that the next mission fares better if they use the same design?
All that said I hope ExoMars does well, but I just don't think it's right to claim that it's inherantly better to use a design that we know failed rather than going forward with elements we have seen work.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Anyone who ever owned a British car or motorcycle won't be surprised at this !
This one cost £50M and seeing as it landed intact, within 5km of the centre of its target landing area they obviously did a pretty good job getting it the surface. If they'd spent a bit MORE money/time they might have engineered the probe more reliably so it actually opened properly...
This is related to space, so I'm posting it: You can see a video of the crash of the Faclon here. Plus a couple of funny tweets by Elon Musk, such as when he calls the crash a "RUD (rapid unscheduled disassembly)" - heh.
Remote hacking/repair mission on its way i think... What else would one use mars rover nearing its retire season... ;)
What is the chance of a future mission giving it a little nudge and salvaging the probe?
OMG facts!
... can be recovered.
It's not dead. It's just pining for the fjords...
Mechanics. So I'm fly They lloked if you don't
Two of the solar panels did unfurl and theoretically are producing power. Perhaps not enough to run all the instruments, but it's something and it's possible could be keeping the batteries charged.
Most of these probes, sensing loss of communication or other problem, go into a 'fault mode' where the bare minimum is kept going until instructions are received. The probe itself might be functional and alive, just with low power and unable to communicate with it's primary array.
I wonder if there is another way to communicate now that we know what's going on? Remember Gallileo had a problem unfurling it's primary antenna and was able to communicate, although much more slowly, through a secondary, low-power antenna.
Lucas, Lord of Darkness :D
Are there any rovers in the area? If so, someone might want to be nice and help the poor lander out.