If you're particularly interested in knowing some realistic wind velocities, pressures, temperatures etc. on Mars then you could check out the European Mars Climate Database. It was created by a group in Oxford for an ESA contract and is based on a global circulation model that tries to simulate weather on Mars. I believe they calculated 12 data points per day once in every martian season and then interpolated between them. Follow this url and it's pretty self explanatory. http://www-mars.lmd.jussieu.fr/mars/access.html
The truth is that putting a lander into orbit first and then, once the 'coast is clear' sending it down to the surface is of course the optimum way of doing things but it's also the most expensive.
Mars Express did not have enough fuel onboard to complete its orbit insertion with the additional mass of Beagle attached. Had Beagle not been ejected either through choice or through malfunction of the Spin up and eject mechanism, Mars Express would have impacted with Mars and that would have been it.
Your comment about the thin atmosphere carrying little force is accurate however you're not really thinking properly about what the real effect on the lander would be. A landing probe would be sitting underneath a parachute tens of metres in diameter for approximately 2 to 3 minutes while drifting downwards. Although the force of this theoretical 150mph wind is low, thereby giving a low acceleration, given enough time the force acting on this huge surface area WILL accelerate the craft to 150 mph. That would be seriously bad news as an impact with the ground at that speed would destroy any lander, no matter what type of airbags it was using.
P.S. I am also an Aerospace engineer and work for the company that was responsible for the aerodynamics, heat shield sizing and trajectory of Beagle2. So I bloody well hope it's OK. I blame the airbags personally.:-)
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If you're particularly interested in knowing some realistic wind velocities, pressures, temperatures etc. on Mars then you could check out the European Mars Climate Database. It was created by a group in Oxford for an ESA contract and is based on a global circulation model that tries to simulate weather on Mars. I believe they calculated 12 data points per day once in every martian season and then interpolated between them. Follow this url and it's pretty self explanatory. http://www-mars.lmd.jussieu.fr/mars/access.html
Have fun.
The truth is that putting a lander into orbit first and then, once the 'coast is clear' sending it down to the surface is of course the optimum way of doing things but it's also the most expensive. Mars Express did not have enough fuel onboard to complete its orbit insertion with the additional mass of Beagle attached. Had Beagle not been ejected either through choice or through malfunction of the Spin up and eject mechanism, Mars Express would have impacted with Mars and that would have been it.
Your comment about the thin atmosphere carrying little force is accurate however you're not really thinking properly about what the real effect on the lander would be.
:-)
A landing probe would be sitting underneath a parachute tens of metres in diameter for approximately 2 to 3 minutes while drifting downwards. Although the force of this theoretical 150mph wind is low, thereby giving a low acceleration, given enough time the force acting on this huge surface area WILL accelerate the craft to 150 mph. That would be seriously bad news as an impact with the ground at that speed would destroy any lander, no matter what type of airbags it was using.
P.S. I am also an Aerospace engineer and work for the company that was responsible for the aerodynamics, heat shield sizing and trajectory of Beagle2. So I bloody well hope it's OK. I blame the airbags personally.