Mars - Rover Spirit

Pro]v[etheus

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The Mars Rover Spirit has successfully landed and is sending back data, quite sickening really:(

It's a great achievement no doubt but it's a bummer when Beagle2, one of our own projects failed to send back a signal.
 

Brynn

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Rover and Beagle. Sounds like one of the Scientist's missus named them after their dogs.
 

dysfunction

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Pro]v[etheus said:
The Mars Rover Spirit has successfully landed and is sending back data, quite sickening really:(

It's a great achievement no doubt but it's a bummer when Beagle2, one of our own projects failed to send back a signal.


Yes but this picture could be from anywhere!!

1187540.jpg




And they have lost previous craft/probes they have sent to Mars in the past...
 

Ch3tan

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Beagle 2 was cheap and rushed, they didnt even examine the landing site enough to realise there was a stonking big crater in the middle of it.
 

Whipped

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Ch3tan said:
Beagle 2 was cheap and rushed, they didnt even examine the landing site enough to realise there was a stonking big crater in the middle of it.
But it is a long way away, and I sometimes miss cracks in the pavement and trip over them :)
 

Ch3tan

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Hehe. My point was that it was very ambitous, and maybe given more time they would have been succesful. With more time and planning they may have done better, at least they didnt lose a horrific amount of money (compared with the amount the US spend).
 

SAS

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The second part of beagle which is in orbit around mars is still functioning so the british effort is not dead, but 50% successful. Considering the costs, time, and manpower needed to get as far as they did they have done well... Just a same the other 50% did not go as planned :(

/me thinks aliens blew it out of the sky or ... nasa fried it with microwaves...
 

Tom

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The thing about unmanned space travel is once you've launched the device, there isn't really much to do except hope that it will function correctly. They spent years designing and building Hubble, only to find that once it was in space taking pictures, the main mirror was distorted, a problem that was eventually diagnosed as a fleck of paint that had fallen off a measuring rod during manufacture.

What I'm trying to say is that if we can't build cars that never break down, how do we expect to build spacecraft that function perfectly? In the end, you just need a bit of luck. Beagle 2 might actually be working fine, its just that we might not be able to hear it.
 

Hashmonster

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Tom said:
What I'm trying to say is that if we can't build cars that never break down, how do we expect to build spacecraft that function perfectly?

cos in theory all cars a built to a price - u get what u pay for...

sadly i think this is the same for most space stuff too :(
 

Tom

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Yes, but even the most expensive elaborate cars break down from time to time. Nothing in this life is perfect, except perhaps Sandra Bullock's face.
 

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