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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.
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.
It's not like it was the only probe to use parachutes. Besides, it also used airbags. I'm inclined to think that the engineers knew what they were doing.
Really? Well shit, good thing you figured it out.
Better tell all those PHDs and other people who do that for a living before they blindly chuck any more multi-billion dollar probes at Mars without any effective means of slowing down.
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!
"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.
Colin Pillinger dies after brain haemorrhage http://www.bbc.com/news/scienc...
Quick someone send it the command to roll over!!
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?
It's still an atmosphere there - at the speeds that the payload is arriving parachutes will work fine to slow it down quite a bit. But for the final phase airbags and other means like braking rockets still are needed.
The initial hit on the atmosphere is a heat shield, but when that no longer is needed then you continue the slowdown with parachutes. Using rockets for the full deceleration is probably heavier than the parachutes otherwise they would have used them.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
Well don't just tell us, do something about it!
http://www.esa.int/About_Us/Ca...
Mostly random stuff.
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.
And you would be incorrect.
The Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator is testing next-generation parachutes for landing things on Mars. They launch the test platform high up into Earth's atmosphere, where the air pressure and other conditions are most like Mars, then they test how the various new parachute and other drag tech works to slow it down again. Disclosure: My wife is one of the engineers that worked on the platform itself.
The parachute is not designed to be the final landing device, but if you don't use a parachute or other drag device as you approach when there is measurable atmosphere you'll burn up or crash hard. The atmosphere doesn't have to be very thick to still have friction.
Given what they said about Beagle's failure to deploy, I wonder if it broke during the airbag bounce process and the panel jammed.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
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.
Maybe NASA can go bump it with a rover a couple of times......you never know....always works on my B&W TV!
The batteries on the probe are almost certainly frozen and useless by now. Plus, the mission control for that project packed up their equipment and moved on years ago.
I read the internet for the articles.
Had you RTFA, you would know it appears the landing was entirely successful. The darned solar petals, well, RTFA.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
"I guess the circuits controlling communications got screwed up, so it was assumed to be lost."
I know this is Slashdot and people is not expected to RTFA but you... guess!!!???
From the header:
"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."
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.
Funny how you think metric is somehow non-standard.
Put the antenna under everything so you can only communicate with it if everything goes perfect. Brilliant! Either a better location for the antenna or a redundant antenna in a better location would have solved this obvious design flaw. If they had done that, the odds of still being able to gather some scientific data would have been much higher even with reduced available power from undeployed panels. Part of NASA's success with their Mars rovers was being able to tell them to not use certain systems and do less stuff to conserve power when their solar panels got old and dirty and batteries got old.
Well, at least it seems the Entry/Descent/Landing engineers knew what they were doing. The "petal" system engineers, not quite so much.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
But our petals were a thing of true beauty!