

Jodrell Bank Telescope Gets No Signal From Beagle 425
tipiyano writes "Continuing the story of Beagle 2 from earlier today it seems like the hope for Beagle 2 surviving the landing at Mars is reducing as the Jodrell Bank telescope didn't receive any signal from Beagle. In the words of a mission manager, 'I wasn't too worried about the missed link with Odyssey, but it starts getting serious if Jodrell Bank cannot get a signal either'."
Bummer (Score:3, Interesting)
One more reason... (Score:4, Interesting)
-- "Technology is most likely to let you down when you need it most." (Montgomery's axiom)
Re:When wil they learn? (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm sure the Europeans are using a slightly different design than the Americans anyways, so from a NASA point of view, it's actually 1 for 1. We'll see within the next month whether this method is worthwhile or not.
Suggestion: Venus (Score:2, Interesting)
Venus (in the upper atmosphere) has nearly the same temperature, air pressure, gravity, and light as earth. Even though it has a lot of sulfuric acid (and CO2) - that is a lot easier to deal with than the cold hard vacume rock of Mars. With enough energy - lots of water, air, and carbon byproducts would be readially available. In addition, it is my understanding that a balloon of regular air would float on its own weight.
Re:One more reason... (Score:5, Interesting)
Remember the first moon landing? Armstrong saw the rocks at the site were too big and numerous, and flew it somewhere safer...
There are advantages to sending humans, and enough lost space missions could pay for one Mars Direct launch...
Re:When wil they learn? (Score:4, Interesting)
Calling all Bookies! (Score:5, Interesting)
Vijay Dutt
London,
Bookmakers in London were biting their nails with nervousness as Beagle 2 approached the touch down on Mars. On Tuesday Ladbrokes cut the odds on the mission discovering life there after a flurry of bets.
Ladbrokes received many large bets following successful separation of the lander from its mother ship, Mars Express, on Friday. Others too reportedly similar increase in number of bets.
Proof of life on Mars would leave the bookmaker liable for a huge payouts on wagers placed with them. Warren Lush, a Ladbrokes spokesman was quoted saying that odds on finding evidence of life on Mars were being reduced from 33-1 to 25-1 after facing a potential payout of hundreds of thousands of pounds.
He conceded that the odds did not represent the true odds on finding life on the planet but the price was shortened because of the liabilities of hundreds of thousands of pounds. " We first took money for Mars life on Mars back in 1969 and would be looking at a black hole in our accounts if Beagle 2 discovers something," the spokesman told the Times.
Colin Pillinger, professor of Planetary Sciences at the Open University and Beagle's lead scientist has not placed any bet. He feels it would be like insider trading.
Meanwhile, Sir Patrick Moore writing in the Mirror said we would know after a few hours if there is some form of life on Mars, 34,500,000 miles away from us. There are craters, old riverbeds, canyons, valleys and volcanoes, the Olympus Mars being three times higher than the Everest.
The scientists are agog with the expectation that signals from Beagle 2 could confirm life forms even if it was very lowly.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_507223,000
However... (Score:5, Interesting)
There is a window every day now to pick up a signal via NASA's Odyssey, and if for any reason that there is a problem with comms protocols between Beagle2 and Odyssey (this was never tested due to time constraints) then Mars Express will come online on Jan 4th 2004 which does know how to talk to Beagle2.
Re:Suggestion: Venus (Score:3, Interesting)
And probes have been sent to Venus in the past, guess what happens when you put a probe in sulpheric acid? It lasts about 23 minutes before being destroyed ( http://www.solarspace.co.uk/venus.htm [solarspace.co.uk])
Re:5 watts...Crazy (Score:5, Interesting)
And now in 2003 we can't even equal that with billions of transistors on an IC... Sad, really.
There isn't much on the net about parametric amplifiers sadly. Better hit the libraries and look for mouldy oldies, I have a great book with descriptions of the circuitry used for tracking Pioneer probes.
Re:5 watts...Crazy (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Meanwhile, on Mars... (Score:5, Interesting)
You know my boss wouldn't find that funny at all. A few years ago he worked on a joint project between the US and the USSR - a satellite named Skipper [flatoday.com]. Russians didn't believe in testing their flight hardware, only shadow building an identical one to destructively test. Skipper's solar panels were wired reverse of the battery so every rotation of the satellite the voltage would drop significantly and never quite come back up. Within' a minute or two the craft had shorted the batteries to the point the electronics no longer functioned.
He says it remains in its 800km orbit, mocking him every 45 minutes. According to my calculations it should only mock him every 101 minutes.
Re:5 watts...Crazy (Score:4, Interesting)
Oops, they did it again. (Score:2, Interesting)
http://yorkshireufoinfo.homestead.com/PhobosPla
http://www.planetary.org/learn/missions/marsmis
Re:5 watts...Crazy (Score:3, Interesting)
I remember Carl Sagan once saying something about the total amount of energy reaching the earth as radio waves from radio sources in space, including space probes, being equivilant to the energy of a single snowflake hitting the ground. Why else would radio telescopes be so fracking big?
Re:Suggestion: Venus (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Meanwhile, on Mars... (Score:3, Interesting)
Sorry to be a math nazi
Re:Jordell Bank confirms: Beagle2 is dying! (Score:3, Interesting)