A tense day at the European Space Agency: Is a lander lost on Mars?
03:10 There is still no sign of life from the beagle
The Jordal Bank radio observatory has scanned a large area of Mars The search for a Beagle 2 lander on Mars looks bleak after a massive radio telescope listening for the signal of life failed to turn up any signal from the British Beagle 2 spacecraft.
The Jordal Bank Heridu Telescope in Cheshire scanned Mars for over two hours tonight, but failed to pick up any signal that the lander was operational.
01:00 Mars Express entered orbit around Mars * still waiting for signal from Beagle 2
Yesterday morning, after a 205-day journey in space during which it covered 400 million kilometers, the engines of the Mars Express spacecraft were ignited on December 25, at 03:47 Central European time (04:47 Israel time) for 37 minutes, to allow the spacecraft to move from orbit Reaching Mars to orbit around it. The ignition gave the spacecraft the boost it needed to get caught in Mars' gravity by reaching the speed of Mars in its orbit around the Sun. It's like climbing a merry-go-round as it spins. The runway maneuvers were carried out with complete success.
This is a major achievement for Europe in its first attempt to launch a spacecraft into orbit around another planet.
However, at about the same time, the Beagle 2 spacecraft, protected by a heat shield, entered the Martian atmosphere at high speed and was supposed to reach the ground around 04:52 Israel time. However, the first attempt to contact Beagle 2, three hours after landing by NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft was unsuccessful. The radio connection was not established. The next opportunity to try calling is expected at 00:40.
The science site will try to update later if there is any news. In any case, the full report will be delivered in the morning.
Space / fateful night for "Beagle-2"
A tense day at the European Space Agency: Is a lander lost on Mars?
By Yuval Dror
Yesterday at 8 am (Israel time), everything seemed ready. The chief scientist of the "Beagle-2" project, Prof. Colin Pillinger, sat down for a press conference at the Open University of North London. On the line was the American space agency, which is in contact with "Mars Odyssey", a spacecraft that orbits Mars and is supposed to receive the signals from the "Beagle-2" lander and transmit them to Earth. The tension in the control room in Darmstadt, Germany also rose and went; The scientists waited together to hear the nine-note melody composed by the British "Beller" band for the occasion, and which was supposed to be sent by Beagle-2.
But the sounds didn't come. At the end of ten minutes of tense waiting, Pillinger informed the journalists that the communication attempts with the lander had failed.
"It's a little disappointing, but it's not the end of the world," he tried to encourage the audience, "Please, don't leave here feeling like we lost the lander." And Dr. Dave Rothery, who helped choose the landing site, admitted in an interview to "The Scotsman" newspaper that those involved in the project are not completely surprised that there is no connection: "We always knew that this is what could happen. There is a long chain of events that need to occur in order for us to receive communication from Beagle-2."
The project team spent the rest of the day waiting for the lander to wake up: Beagle-2 shuts itself down at night (Mars time) to save energy. Only when the sun rises - after midnight (Israel time) - on the site where it landed on Mars, the computer is supposed to wake it up and make it send life signals towards Earth. The giant Jodrell Bank telescope in Great Britain will try to pick up these signals. The signals will not contain information and their whole function is to say: "I am here". But last night there was no certainty that Beagle-2, the first mission of the European Space Agency, was still here.
Last Friday the picture was still rosy. "Mars Express", which carried Beagle-2, released the lander as planned. The lander moved at a speed of 20 km/h towards the landing site, and the spacecraft navigated its way to orbit around Mars, and had time to photograph Beagle-2 after separation - the last sign of life that came from it, as of last night.
The landing process itself was supposed to be quick, and be completed in less than eight minutes, around 5 am yesterday (Israel time). Beagle-2 was supposed to slow down, deploy two parachutes one after the other, and at a height of 275 meters above the surface of Mars, inflate a ball-shaped airbag around it that would prevent it from crashing. After the balloon was empty, Beagle-2 was supposed to deploy the solar panels, charge the battery and send information to "Mars Odyssey".
The fact that this information did not arrive at the end of the landing process raises various possibilities regarding the fate of the landing. It may have burned up further in the atmosphere; The parachutes may not have opened and she crashed; The parachutes may have deployed but the airbag did not inflate; And it is possible that Beagle-2 failed to deploy the solar panels, the battery was not charged and the entire lander suffered "brain death".
These explanations spell the end of Beagle-2, but Prof. Pillinger listed four other scenarios yesterday, in which the lander is normal but unable to communicate: it may have landed in the wrong area, and therefore "Mars Odyssey" does not receive its signals; Beagle-2's antenna may be pointed at the wrong spot in the sky; It is possible that the mechanism that schedules the sending of signals from the lander in front of the spacecraft's orbit has broken down, and therefore no life signal was received from it; And there is always a possible incompatibility in the software between Beagle-2 and "Mars Odyssey", which was originally not designed to work with the lander. All these scenarios left Pillinger optimistic: "As always with England, we play in overtime."
If the extension won't help either, the project team will try to "hear" from Beagle again tonight. Another failure to receive a sign of life from the lander will oblige the European Space Agency to get used to the idea that its first mission in space was unsuccessful, and attention will shift to the American space vehicle "Spirit", which will land on Mars on January 4, and its twin "Opportunity", which will land there on January 25.
26.12.2003
By: Avi Blizovsky
https://www.hayadan.org.il/marsupdate261203.html
03:10 There is still no sign of life from the beagle
The radio observatory at Jordal Bank has scanned a large area of Mars
The search for a Beagle 2 lander on Mars looks bleak after a massive radio telescope listening for the signal of life failed to turn up any signal from the British Beagle 2 spacecraft.
The Jordal Bank Heridu Telescope in Cheshire scanned Mars for over two hours tonight, but failed to pick up any signal that the lander was operational.
01:00 Mars Express entered orbit around Mars * still waiting for signal from Beagle 2
Yesterday morning, after a 205-day journey in space during which it covered 400 million kilometers, the engines of the Mars Express spacecraft were ignited on December 25, at 03:47 Central European time (04:47 Israel time) for 37 minutes, to allow the spacecraft to move from orbit Reaching Mars to orbit around it. The ignition gave the spacecraft the boost it needed to get caught in Mars' gravity by reaching the speed of Mars in its orbit around the Sun. It's like climbing a merry-go-round as it spins. The runway maneuvers were carried out with complete success.
This is a major achievement for Europe in its first attempt to launch a spacecraft into orbit around another planet.
However, at about the same time, the Beagle 2 spacecraft, protected by a heat shield, entered the Martian atmosphere at high speed and was supposed to reach the ground around 04:52 Israel time. However, the first attempt to contact Beagle 2, three hours after landing by NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft was unsuccessful. The radio connection was not established. The next opportunity to try calling is expected at 00:40.
The science site will try to update later if there is any news. In any case, the full report will be delivered in the morning.
Space / fateful night for "Beagle-2"
A tense day at the European Space Agency: Is a lander lost on Mars?
By Yuval Dror
Yesterday at 8 am (Israel time), everything seemed ready. The chief scientist of the "Beagle-2" project, Prof. Colin Pillinger, sat down for a press conference at the Open University of North London. On the line was the American space agency, which is in contact with "Mars Odyssey", a spacecraft that orbits Mars and is supposed to receive the signals from the "Beagle-2" lander and transmit them to Earth. The tension in the control room in Darmstadt, Germany also rose and went; The scientists waited together to hear the nine-note melody composed by the British "Beller" band for the occasion, and which was supposed to be sent by Beagle-2.
But the sounds didn't come. At the end of ten minutes of tense waiting, Pillinger informed the journalists that the communication attempts with the lander had failed.
"It's a little disappointing, but it's not the end of the world," he tried to encourage the audience, "Please, don't leave here feeling like we lost the lander." And Dr. Dave Rothery, who helped choose the landing site, admitted in an interview to "The Scotsman" newspaper that those involved in the project are not completely surprised that there is no connection: "We always knew that this is what could happen. There is a long chain of events that need to occur in order for us to receive communication from Beagle-2."
The project team spent the rest of the day waiting for the lander to wake up: Beagle-2 shuts itself down at night (Mars time) to save energy. Only when the sun rises - after midnight (Israel time) - on the site where it landed on Mars, the computer is supposed to wake it up and make it send life signals towards Earth. The giant Jodrell Bank telescope in Great Britain will try to pick up these signals. The signals will not contain information and their whole function is to say: "I am here". But last night there was no certainty that Beagle-2, the first mission of the European Space Agency, was still here.
Last Friday the picture was still rosy. "Mars Express", which carried Beagle-2, released the lander as planned. The lander moved at a speed of 20 km/h towards the landing site, and the spacecraft navigated its way to orbit around Mars, and had time to photograph Beagle-2 after separation - the last sign of life that came from it, as of last night.
The landing process itself was supposed to be quick, and be completed in less than eight minutes, around 5 am yesterday (Israel time). Beagle-2 was supposed to slow down, deploy two parachutes one after the other, and at a height of 275 meters above the surface of Mars, inflate a ball-shaped airbag around it that would prevent it from crashing. After the balloon was empty, Beagle-2 was supposed to deploy the solar panels, charge the battery and send information to "Mars Odyssey".
The fact that this information did not arrive at the end of the landing process raises various possibilities regarding the fate of the landing. It may have burned up further in the atmosphere; The parachutes may not have opened and she crashed; The parachutes may have deployed but the airbag did not inflate; And it is possible that Beagle-2 failed to deploy the solar panels, the battery was not charged and the entire lander suffered "brain death".
These explanations spell the end of Beagle-2, but Prof. Pillinger listed four other scenarios yesterday, in which the lander is normal but unable to communicate: it may have landed in the wrong area, and therefore "Mars Odyssey" does not receive its signals; Beagle-2's antenna may be pointed at the wrong spot in the sky; It is possible that the mechanism that schedules the sending of signals from the lander in front of the spacecraft's orbit has broken down, and therefore no life signal was received from it; And there is always a possible incompatibility in the software between Beagle-2 and "Mars Odyssey", which was originally not designed to work with the lander. All these scenarios left Pillinger optimistic: "As always with England, we play in overtime."
If the extension won't help either, the project team will try to "hear" from Beagle again tonight. Another failure to receive a sign of life from the lander will oblige the European Space Agency to get used to the idea that its first mission in space was unsuccessful, and attention will shift to the American space vehicle "Spirit", which will land on Mars on January 4, and its twin "Opportunity", which will land there on January 25.
