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Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.
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Shame they are sending Beagle 2 to the equator. The recent results suggest that most of the water is at the poles.
Phobos
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I think it's wonderful they're going to the equator. Maybe they can answer whether the hydrogen detected there is water that "shouldn't" be there, or is really some other mineral containing hydrogen. Like a hydrocarbon??
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Mars Express launch delayed to replace a part, but that's a good thing.
Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.
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But that was a much longer delay.
Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.
Vulcan Administrator
Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.
Vulcan Administrator
Beagle Points to Mars
Should be a big year for Mars science coming up, with the two rovers and this.
Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.
Insert awesome title here
Let us pray to Cynthia for the success of Beagle 2. Being the first British probe, there's a lot more at stake for Britain than for America with MER.
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Let us pray, also, that nothing in the Mars Express package is in non-metric units, if you catch my drift.
Insert awesome title here
It's European, I'd expect it to be fully metric. It's not the use of metric or imperial that matters, it the facts that Deep Space 2 was designed in one and built in another. As long as there's uniformity, it won't matter.
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The Mars Climate Orbiter problem was more that a routine in the navigation software expected metric data but was fed imperial - that and that there wasn't enough checking going on to catch the problem, either at the testing stage or during flight operations.Originally Posted by Glom
MCO Failure Report
Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.
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Hey! How else are we gonna aireate the Martian soil to help their agriculture?
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Looking for water on Mars with ground-penetrating radar.
Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.
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Will this ground-penetrating radar also show the Martian cities that Richard Hoaxland says are undergroud?
...man, I'm on a roll tonite...they gotta quit feeding me these straight lines...
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Sure. You just mess with the images until you start getting jpeg artifacts, then announce those as signs of Martian buildings.
Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.
Vulcan Administrator
Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.
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Beagle 2 a "miniaturized marvel of engineering"
First probe to look for life on Mars since Viking.
Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.
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Ye Gads! I hope Lucas didn't build the electronics for that puppy! If they did, the probe's DOA (if not on launch).
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I once recreated Hoagwash's city architecture under the Cydonia surface using a jpeg of my forearm. I love how not one single picture posted in Hoagwash's name is unmanipulated and raw...he massages each and every one, often personally, until they divulge their secrets. What a huckster...
Vulcan Administrator
Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.
Vulcan Administrator
More about Beagle 2 and Mars Express, with some nice photos.
Everything I need to know I learned through Googling.
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Order of Kilopi
Hi,
do we consider it a shame or pragmatism that ME was not launched from an Ariane?
I just wonder if the ESA should concentrate on paylod design and construction and let TTO and beyond to be the domain of someone who has already gone through the strain of proving their technology?
Just a thought.
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I feel a rocket is a rocket.
The designs are still based on the 'brute force' approach: push the button, and hope it makes orbit.
Steering may be the biggest problem after the launch; and launch/steering problems are not caused by bad tech, but mostly unforeseen glitches.
Any group in the 'space race' nowadays wishes for a good flight; they do their best.
A perfect flight is gravy.
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Extreme pragmatism.
First, Soyuz is a highly reliable launcher (albeit the Fregat stage was only tested four times up till the launch)
Second, it's very inexpensive.
Third, ME was scheduled to be launched using Soyuz well before the Ariane 5ECA explosion last year.
Fourth, Ariane 5 is what is currently known as a 'heavy-lift' vehicle. You would not dedicate an entire Ariane to this probe - ridiculously costly. You could go for a multiple-payload launch, but matching up the payloads years in advance is not something you'd want to do - not when one of them is a Mars probe that must be scheduled a long time in advance.
Fifth, and I don't think many people are are aware of this, Starsem, (http://www.starsem.com), which runs the commercial Soyuz programme is 50% owned by Western European concerns (EADS and Arianespace - its HQ is in Paris and its CEO is French). Soyuz is becoming increasingly integrated with Western European programmes, and is having a launch facility built for it in a few years time in Kourou. It is likely to become ESA and Europe's standard medium-lift launcher - the equivalent of the USA's Delta 2.
ESA does concentrate on payload design and construction (and space infrastructure etc etc). It is not a launch provider. But it has a special relationship with Arianespace as a launch provider. Assuming you mean Europe, though, I completely disagree. Soyuz (see above) is possibly the most proven launch technology on the planet. As for Ariane 5 - yes, I'd agree that some aspects of its design may have been misconceived (for example it was overspecified to be able to handle the now-defunct Hermes spaceplane).
However Ariane 5 basic was fairly well proven. The ECA heavy model that went down did so on its maiden flight - not a reason you should write off a launcher (it was probably a mistake carrying commercial payloads on it, though). I'd note that Arianespace has a pretty healthy order book in what is currently a market with considerable over-capacity. Arianespace has been feeling the pinch, but then all launch providers are worried. (Though Boeing and Lockmart are more diversified and have lucrative USAF contracts.)
Order of Kilopi
Thanks Grand Vizier,
I had recalled the split between ESA and Ariannespace and it was the integration of the former Soviet programe with the west that prompted my thoughts.
I take the point about the heavy lift capability versus the Soyuz type launch vehicle.
Bear with me, I'm comming back up to speed after around 10-15 years with my head stuck firmly in business rather than spending an appropriate amount of time on science.
Thanks again
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Yes - that unfolding story is what fascinates me. Wish we had payloads for their Energia vehicle (if it could be put back into production). Now that would be an off-the-shelf Saturn V-type capability...
I haven't seen it stated - but I suspect that the 'move to Soyuz' might have been thought out a while back, which explains why Arianespace abandoned Ariane 4 (which some people consider to be a foolish mistake, leaving Europe with no medium-lift capacity). It's likely that A4 wouldn't be cost-competitive with Soyuz on a level-playing field - that may be why. Can't be certain that it was that thought out, though. The thing with Europe is that there are always a lot of players and a lot of compromises going on behind the scenes, I'm sure.
Hey - I know what you mean. I've just had to play catch-up recently, and I'm always being caught out (particularly by the real experts on sci.space.* groups).
Order of Kilopi
I'm an Englishman living in London, working in UK Govt, so believe me, I totally understand and am frustrated with the EU dynamic.Can't be certain that it was that thought out, though. The thing with Europe is that there are always a lot of players and a lot of compromises going on behind the scenes, I'm sure.
Bring back "Black Knight"
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Now you're talking. It always gives me a melancholy feeling to see that one surviving Black Arrow in the Science Museum. Pretty successful program by the lights of the time, too - orbited a satellite on second (orbital attempt). We should have gone on to Black Knight.
But you know, I don't think it was Europe that was the essential problem, it's that we should have gone on to play a greater role and not leave all the launcher stuff to the others. Instead Britain just went off in a huff after ELDO - even though the British Blue Streak was the most successful rocket stage. The French just went indigenous and developed Diamant that led to Ariane. Well, good for them.
The UK's always behaving like that with regard to Europe, but if you're going to get anywhere you have to play the political game, not sulk in your tent.
Ah, history - mustn't let it start one ranting, eh, what?
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