Barbie
12-30-2003, 04:17 PM
Landing in crater may have silenced Martian probe (http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/12/29/mars_probe031229)
Last Updated Mon, 29 Dec 2003 15:50:14
LONDON - Europe's Beagle 2 probe may be stuck in a Martian crater blocking its call, scientists said Monday.
INDEPTH: Mars
Mars crater (AP photo / Malin Space Science Systems )
The one-kilometre-wide crater lies in the middle of what was supposed to be the probe's landing site near the planet's equator.
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor photographed the crater about 20 minutes after the British probe was due to touch down on Christmas Day. The Beagle team released the photo on Monday.
"We'd have to be incredibly accurate and incredibly unlucky to go right down this crater, which of course would not be good news," said Colin Pillinger, Beagle 2's chief scientist, in London.
Pillinger told reporters it is possible but unlikely the tire-sized craft can't communicate because it landed in the crater.
Rocks around the crater may have made for a rough landing for the craft, causing it to bounce more than hoped.
The fall may have prevented the probe's solar panels from unfolding, or burst its protective air bags. Beagle 2 also has a robotic arm to take Martian soil and rock samples for analysis in its lab.
Beagle 2 has failed so far to make contact with its mother ship – the European Space Agency's orbiter Mars Express – or the giant Lovell telescope at Jodrell Bank in northwest England.
A sixth attempt to hear the signal passed on Monday without success. Beagle 2's call sign is a short tune composed by the British band Blur.
The Lovell telescope and NASA's craft will continue their daily sweeps for the call. Beagle 2 is programmed to transmit its signal when receivers are in position to take the call.
Mark Sim, mission manager at the British National Space Centre in Leicester, said they had discounted two possible theories for the lander's silence: weather and physical damage to its internal clock.
It is possible the clock's software is malfunctioning, causing it to "talk" at the wrong times. Scientists plan to send a reset command on Wednesday.
The European Space Agency will get a better idea of the lander's status when Mars Express enters a lower orbit on Jan. 4.
Mars is a difficult place for landers. Of 34 unmanned American, Soviet and Russian missions to Mars since 1960, two-thirds have ended in failure.
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Last Updated Mon, 29 Dec 2003 15:50:14
LONDON - Europe's Beagle 2 probe may be stuck in a Martian crater blocking its call, scientists said Monday.
INDEPTH: Mars
Mars crater (AP photo / Malin Space Science Systems )
The one-kilometre-wide crater lies in the middle of what was supposed to be the probe's landing site near the planet's equator.
NASA's Mars Global Surveyor photographed the crater about 20 minutes after the British probe was due to touch down on Christmas Day. The Beagle team released the photo on Monday.
"We'd have to be incredibly accurate and incredibly unlucky to go right down this crater, which of course would not be good news," said Colin Pillinger, Beagle 2's chief scientist, in London.
Pillinger told reporters it is possible but unlikely the tire-sized craft can't communicate because it landed in the crater.
Rocks around the crater may have made for a rough landing for the craft, causing it to bounce more than hoped.
The fall may have prevented the probe's solar panels from unfolding, or burst its protective air bags. Beagle 2 also has a robotic arm to take Martian soil and rock samples for analysis in its lab.
Beagle 2 has failed so far to make contact with its mother ship – the European Space Agency's orbiter Mars Express – or the giant Lovell telescope at Jodrell Bank in northwest England.
A sixth attempt to hear the signal passed on Monday without success. Beagle 2's call sign is a short tune composed by the British band Blur.
The Lovell telescope and NASA's craft will continue their daily sweeps for the call. Beagle 2 is programmed to transmit its signal when receivers are in position to take the call.
Mark Sim, mission manager at the British National Space Centre in Leicester, said they had discounted two possible theories for the lander's silence: weather and physical damage to its internal clock.
It is possible the clock's software is malfunctioning, causing it to "talk" at the wrong times. Scientists plan to send a reset command on Wednesday.
The European Space Agency will get a better idea of the lander's status when Mars Express enters a lower orbit on Jan. 4.
Mars is a difficult place for landers. Of 34 unmanned American, Soviet and Russian missions to Mars since 1960, two-thirds have ended in failure.
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