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Mattattattatt Ye Olde JackSkellington
Great Old One Joined: 17 Sep 2001 Total posts: 517 Gender: Male |
 Posted: 24-10-2001 01:49 Post subject: New Mars Probe |
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The probe oddysey approaches Mars orbit tonight. The last two have been lost (according to ABC), as have others.
It'd be interesting to keep track of this one's progress, especially in light of confusion over the moons and the reccent storms |
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| Anonymous |
| Posted: 24-10-2001 14:05 Post subject: |
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it got there safely according to bbc1 news at 1
and is now in orbit
cas |
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| Ronson8 Things can only get better.
Great Old One Joined: 31 Jul 2001 Total posts: 6061 Location: MK Gender: Male |
| Posted: 24-10-2001 23:57 Post subject: |
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On hearing the news of the probes safe arrival, my son reminded me of the two lost probes and said wouldn't it be funny if aliens have a base on Mars and are zapping our probes to keep us in the dark about their existence...Makes you think. |
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| Anonymous |
| Posted: 25-10-2001 00:36 Post subject: |
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its as credible a reason as "we got the trederectory (sp?) wrong" or the other
"it dissapeard till it had passed the planet"
why not zap them? it'd be more fun
cas |
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| Anonymous |
| Posted: 25-10-2001 05:28 Post subject: |
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I believe the second one disappeared as they got their metric and imperial units mixed up.
If it was my mistake, I'd probably blame it on aliens instead.
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| Anonymous |
| Posted: 25-10-2001 13:22 Post subject: |
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Something will go wrong.
It always has lately where Mars is concerned. |
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| Anonymous |
| Posted: 25-10-2001 21:23 Post subject: Mars Observer |
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It'll work this time...(I hope!!!) Let's give the scientists and engineers a huge round of applause...it didn't over-shoot or burn-up.Maybe it'll work also.And maybe...just maybe it'll detect water and maybe...etc.I will not hold my breath but I still hope for something at least interesting.  |
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| Anonymous |
| Posted: 25-10-2001 23:32 Post subject: interesting ? |
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Chances of plant life is laughable.
Water would be nice.
Bacteria would be interesting.
However, don't hold yer breath |
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| Anonymous |
| Posted: 25-10-2001 23:54 Post subject: |
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couldnt have said it better myself chris
i agree with chris on this one water would be nice but i dont think they would honesty find anything of any use,
cas |
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| Mattattattatt Ye Olde JackSkellington
Great Old One Joined: 17 Sep 2001 Total posts: 517 Gender: Male |
| Posted: 26-10-2001 00:32 Post subject: |
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You gotta consider that to find anything of real importance conclusively requires at least an unmanned lander. Now, surely microbes or liquids will be in the rockier, more sheltered terrain rather than the desert plains - but it's the latter which happen to be the only safe place to put a lander down... which often go wrong because the French and the Americans count differently or similar problems...
They may find more indications of underground resevoirs, etc... anybody got any info what the probe's scanning for and what with?
And has the Mars glider been given the go ahead?
Last edited by Mattattattatt on 26-10-2001 00:35; edited 1 time in total |
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| Anonymous |
| Posted: 28-10-2001 21:42 Post subject: what'll happen with Mars |
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I just know that when we sort mars out we will send all our criminals there.
150 years later when they have a tough but peaceful community everyone will wanna live there.
am I talking crap or what  |
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| Anonymous |
| Posted: 28-10-2001 23:03 Post subject: RE: what'll happen with mars |
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| Nah. That already happened. It's called 'Australia'. |
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| Ronson8 Things can only get better.
Great Old One Joined: 31 Jul 2001 Total posts: 6061 Location: MK Gender: Male |
| Posted: 28-10-2001 23:07 Post subject: |
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| I think that was the point that was being made, tongue in cheek. |
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| rynner Location: Still above sea level Gender: Male |
| Posted: 01-06-2003 19:02 Post subject: Destination Mars! |
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With several spacecraft heading for Mars, and the close conjunction coming up this summer, there are bound to be several stories coming up related to the Red Planet, so here's the thread for 'em. 
For starters: | Quote: | Historic Mars lander 'did find life'
By Helen Briggs
BBC News Online science reporter
Claims have re-emerged that the US space agency (Nasa) did find signs of life on Mars during the historic Viking landings of 1976.
Dr Gil Levin, a former mission scientist, says he now has the evidence to prove it, just days before the US and Europe send new expeditions to the Red Planet.
An image of Mars from the Viking II lander
The United States and Russia have spent billions since the 1960s on a handful of space craft designed to land on Mars.
Only three have succeeded so far: the two Viking probes in the 1970s and Mars Pathfinder in 1997.
In 1976, the world was gripped by excitement when a robotic spacecraft touched down on Mars for the first time in history.
Biology experiments detected strange signs of activity in the Martian soil - akin to microbes giving off gas.
Before announcing the news that life had been found on another planet, Nasa carried out more tests to look for evidence of organic matter.
However, the Viking experiments failed to find this essential stuff of life and it was concluded that Mars was a dead planet.
New evidence
Dr Levin, one of three scientists on the life detection experiments, has never given up on the idea that Viking did find living micro-organisms in the surface soil of Mars.
Beagle is looking for life
He continued to experiment and study all new evidence from Mars and Earth, and, in 1997, reached the conclusion and published that the so-called LR (labelled release) work had detected life.
He says new evidence is emerging that could settle the debate, once and for all.
He told BBC News Online: "The organic analysis instrument was shown to be very insensitive, requiring millions of micro-organisms to detect any organic matter versus the LR's demonstrated ability to detect as few as 50 micro-organisms."
Dr Levin, now president and CEO of US biotechnology company Biospherix, has a new experiment that he says "could unambiguously settle the argument".
But it was rejected by both Nasa and the European Space Agency (Esa) to go on-board this summer's Mars missions.
The British-built Beagle 2, which will be deposited on the Martian surface by Esa's Mars Express space craft, is going with the main purpose to hunt for life. This is a risky strategy, claims Dr Levin.
"Strangely, despite its billing, Beagle 2 carries no life detection experiment!" he said. "Neither its GCMS (organic detector) which is claimed to be more sensitive than Viking's, nor its isotopic analysis instrument can provide evidence for living organisms."
Robot geologists
Nasa's mission to Mars is taking a more circumspect approach to the big life question.
Its two identical rovers will roam the ancient plains of Mars acting as robot geologists.
Mark Adler, deputy mission manager, said the main science objective was to understand the water environment of Mars not to search for life.
He told BBC News Online: "What we learnt from Viking is that it is very difficult to come up with specific experiments to look for something you don't really know what to look for."
Claims of life on Mars have always proved highly contentious. Twenty years after Viking, microbe-like structures discovered inside a Martian meteorite found in Antarctica led to more claims that were later rejected.
As the astronomer Carl Sagan once said, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. And there is no reason to believe that anything found this time will be any different.
"It's going to take a number of missions if we want to know whether there is life on Mars or not," said Dr Charles Cockell, a Mars biologist at the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridgeshire, UK.
"If we find no evidence of life on Mars it may just mean we have looked in the wrong place."
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2941826.stm
And an Interactive timeline of missions to Mars so far. |
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| rynner Location: Still above sea level Gender: Male |
| Posted: 01-06-2003 19:18 Post subject: |
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An account of the difficulties encountered designing the parachute and airbags for the British Beagle 2 lander. | Quote: | Beagle 2, Mission to Mars, the inside story of the Beagle 2 project, is broadcast in two parts on BBC Two at 2320 BST on 2 and 3 June.
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(Digiguide has a film of the same name showing, but I guess the Beeb knows what it's putting out!)
And, as an interesting sidebar, the Search for Darwin's Beagle in the Essex marshes. | Quote: | Scientists search for Darwin's Beagle
The final resting place of HMS Beagle, the ship on which Charles Darwin made early discoveries about evolution, could soon be uncovered.
Charles Darwin circumnavigated the world on the HMS Beagle
St Andrews University's Dr Robert Prescott, who has led the team retracing the ship's final fate, said sensor equipment was to be used at an undisclosed site in the Essex marshes this summer.
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