We did think of post-ejection telemetry, but there was insufficient mass budget to add electronics to the back face in order to transmit it, and it used too much power for the small battery, also mass constrained, and Mars-Express wasn't overhead during the descent and entry phase (it was parking).
The simple "ping" system on the JPL MERs worked well. We should copy that next time.
Colin is Chief Scientist; He isn't Chief Engineer, he didn't design Beagle 2. It was designed by professional spacecraft Engineers at EADS Astrium in collaboration with worldwide industrial and academic partners. This is completely normal for European space projects.
Do I think Colin was distracted by his fund raising and scientific work? Absolutely not. Colin entrusted oversight of the development and operations to Dr Mark Sims (University of Leicester) for this very reason.
The lack of appropriate funding was a real issue. It prevented EADS Astrium from assuming prime contractor responsibility until much too late. Until then the project was "skunked" and moved along by a miraculuos quantity of goodwill. I think this damaged the quality of the engineering in the early days and created huge pressures on the Engineers at the back end of the programme. Space projects have REAL immovable deadlines called launch windows.
In particular, I worry that the final assembly work was compromised by the rush to deliver Beagle 2 to Mars-Express for launch, although there is absolutely no evidence from the assembly logs, videos, and flight telemetry to support this view.
No-one really knows what happened because, as the inquiries discovered, there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the design of Beagle 2*. I think the finger-pointing that's gone on since is a disgrace.
Huge advance in space technology has resulted from Beagle 2, but I suspect this will all go down the drain because there has been so much emphasis on the "failure". Here's a quick list: New parachute material and design, Integrated Arm and Paw design. Spectrometer miniaturisation, Mole digging device, Centralised platform computing. Beagle 2's GAP is currently the only spaceworthy instrument in the world capable of detecting past life.
*within the constraints imposed by the mission
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We did think of post-ejection telemetry, but there was insufficient mass budget to add electronics to the back face in order to transmit it, and it used too much power for the small battery, also mass constrained, and Mars-Express wasn't overhead during the descent and entry phase (it was parking). The simple "ping" system on the JPL MERs worked well. We should copy that next time.
Colin is Chief Scientist; He isn't Chief Engineer, he didn't design Beagle 2. It was designed by professional spacecraft Engineers at EADS Astrium in collaboration with worldwide industrial and academic partners. This is completely normal for European space projects. Do I think Colin was distracted by his fund raising and scientific work? Absolutely not. Colin entrusted oversight of the development and operations to Dr Mark Sims (University of Leicester) for this very reason. The lack of appropriate funding was a real issue. It prevented EADS Astrium from assuming prime contractor responsibility until much too late. Until then the project was "skunked" and moved along by a miraculuos quantity of goodwill. I think this damaged the quality of the engineering in the early days and created huge pressures on the Engineers at the back end of the programme. Space projects have REAL immovable deadlines called launch windows. In particular, I worry that the final assembly work was compromised by the rush to deliver Beagle 2 to Mars-Express for launch, although there is absolutely no evidence from the assembly logs, videos, and flight telemetry to support this view. No-one really knows what happened because, as the inquiries discovered, there is nothing fundamentally wrong with the design of Beagle 2*. I think the finger-pointing that's gone on since is a disgrace. Huge advance in space technology has resulted from Beagle 2, but I suspect this will all go down the drain because there has been so much emphasis on the "failure". Here's a quick list: New parachute material and design, Integrated Arm and Paw design. Spectrometer miniaturisation, Mole digging device, Centralised platform computing. Beagle 2's GAP is currently the only spaceworthy instrument in the world capable of detecting past life. *within the constraints imposed by the mission
Tht's the CNES Netlander project: http://smsc.cnes.fr/NETLANDER/. ESA dropped support for it becuase it's too expensive. Pity, because a fine idea.