Mars Express landing station Beagle 2 is less than 1/2 hour from landing on Mars.
Check it out at the European Space Agencies Website: http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/area/index.cfm?fareaid=9
BTW - They have a great website.
Here is an animation of the trip: http://www.esa.int/export/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/SEMA2YTZJND_0.html Complete with Solar system and moving planets.
I hope they don’t hit my house…
Thanks for that link Daniel. Mars’ two moons are eerie. Apparently they were asteroids captured by the gravitaion of the planet. How’d you like your moon to rise in the west every seven and a half hours?
Deimos and Phobos (the two strange moons of Mars)
“Both satellites have equatorial, almost circular orbits, with Phobos orbiting once every 7 h 39 min just 5989 km from the surface of Mars and Deimos orbiting once every 30 h 18 min at 20 062 km from the surface of the planet. The orbital period of Phobos is three times faster than the rotation period of Mars, with the unusual result among natural satellites, that Phobos rises in the west and sets in the east as seen from Mars. Also, it orbits so close to the surface of Mars that the curvature of the planet would obscure its view from an observer standing in Mars’ polar regions.”
“WOW!” is all I can say… well, and “Thanks for that!”
British scientists have failed in their latest attempt to make contact with the Beagle 2 probe which was to have landed on Mars on Christmas Day. The probe is the first European attempt to land a craft on the Red Planet.
http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/12/25/mars.beagle.nosignal/index.html
This is the umpteenth time a probe mission has been unbsuccessful.
My dad worked on the rocket fuels for the Gemini and Apollo space programs–using a slide rule! We put men on the moon using slide rules.
Nowadays, we use supercomputers and we can’t even land a probe!
Makes you wonder…
It’s too bad, I was hoping that this one would work.
Considering that the Winds on Mars are likely to be Iron and other Metallic Dusts, I wonder how much havoc the plays on radio communications.
I think they should use the orbiter as a repeater. Get the messages from the surface to the sky and then try to transmit to earth. If the dust is magnetic, then in a short time anything that lands, the antenna would get covered and rendered inoperative.
Nah, I think little green men are attacking and destroying the probes as soon as they land…
Every time I read about one of these far flung and exotic space missions I can think of only one thing:
How many homes could that money buy?
How many meals could that money buy?
How many whistles could that money buy?
Well, ok that is three and 2 of the three are REALLY important. I will let you decide which.
Ah yes, I understand. But to counter-balance…do you have any idea what devices space exploration has invented, and to which we have mostly all become enslaved?
As I understand it, there’s still hope of initial communication with Mars Express’s land launching unit through this evening (Friday). After that, disappointment will truely set in.
Not to mention those space developed devices/materials/technology that have hugely improved our lives. Know anyone with a cardiac pacemaker? That type of miniaturization would not have happened without the space program and/or the military. Teflon. Computers. Miniaturize cardiac defibrillitors. GPS. High temperature ceramics. Satellites for weather forecasting.
The list goes on and on.
It’s tempting to think in terms of how many hungry people can be fed by the cost of one space shuttle flight, but I think that overall the space program has been a real bargain for humankind. Plus, exploring what we don’t know is WHAT WE DO. It’s one of the basic essences of humanity. Pardon the sexism, but it is in our nature “to boldly go where no man has gone before”.