Beagle 2 found!

[BolshieBastard]

On Mars apparently. Who'd have thought?

[NickFitz]

Shame they didn't find out how close it had come to success before Colin Pillinger died, though

[AtW]

Beagle

[DannyF1966]

Makes you appreciate all the other projects that did succeed though, doesn't it? When we send out all these probes and robots to other planets, comets, moons etc, the ratio of successes to failures is actually amazingly high.

[VectraMan]

That is a shock.

As long as you didn't read the news on Tuesday.

[BolshieBastard]

That is a shock.

As long as you didn't read the news on Tuesday.

Except the news on Tuesday was an announcement about Beagle would be made Friday not that they had found it (although that was the speculation) or any other outcome.

Joking apart, it appears the 3rd solar panel didnt deploy for some reason, preventing 2 other panels and the transmission aerial from deploying.

Suspect is a puncturerd air cusshion on landing did some damage.

Did they announce all this on Tuesday? Dont think so!

[VectraMan]

Okay I'll let you off.

[EternalOptimist]

Except the news on Tuesday was an announcement about Beagle would be made Friday not that they had found it (although that was the speculation) or any other outcome.

Joking apart, it appears the 3rd solar panel didnt deploy for some reason, preventing 2 other panels and the transmission aerial from deploying.

Suspect is a puncturerd air cusshion on landing did some damage.

Did they announce all this on Tuesday? Dont think so!

interesting point about the panels not deploying, similar to the problems with the comet probe getting caught in the shade. Most probes have a nuclear power pack which seems to be a better bet, in terms of reliability

[woohoo]

interesting point about the panels not deploying, similar to the problems with the comet probe getting caught in the shade. Most probes have a nuclear power pack which seems to be a better bet, in terms of reliability

Would be a bit of a pisser if we did find intelligent life and we dropped a nuclear powered probe on them that then blew up and killed them all. I'm pretty certain that's what happened with the dinosaurs.

[VectraMan]

interesting point about the panels not deploying, similar to the problems with the comet probe getting caught in the shade. Most probes have a nuclear power pack which seems to be a better bet, in terms of reliability

Perhaps the nuclear option is more complicated and expensive, and (if everything works) unnecessary as solar panels can do the job.