Lost landers from HiRISE, The next step |
Lost landers from HiRISE, The next step |
Jan 3 2007, 08:41 PM
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#1
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Member Group: Members Posts: 428 Joined: 21-August 06 From: Northern Virginia Member No.: 1062 |
Okay, we now have definitive pictures of VL1, 2, Spirit, Opportunity, and a Pathfinder coming up soon. So, now, what would the lost landers look like, starting with Beagle, MPL, and Mars 6, which will be the easiest to find of the landers. Just curious to hear your thoughts. Thanks!
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Jan 6 2007, 01:06 AM
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#2
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Merciless Robot Group: Admin Posts: 8785 Joined: 8-December 05 From: Los Angeles Member No.: 602 |
Man, those were ambitious missions...I sure wish that they had succeeded despite the limitations of their technology & the odds! Thanks for the link, ljk4-1.
Given the (apparently still current) thinking that Mars 3 was overturned by winds, I sincerely doubt that the rover could have deployed. Neat thought, though... -------------------- A few will take this knowledge and use this power of a dream realized as a force for change, an impetus for further discovery to make less ancient dreams real.
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Jan 6 2007, 02:39 AM
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#3
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2454 Joined: 8-July 05 From: NGC 5907 Member No.: 430 |
Man, those were ambitious missions...I sure wish that they had succeeded despite the limitations of their technology & the odds! Thanks for the link, ljk4-1. Given the (apparently still current) thinking that Mars 3 was overturned by winds, I sincerely doubt that the rover could have deployed. Neat thought, though... The more likely answer is that the Mars 3 relay orbiter went out of range for the lander or there was a communications problem with the orbiter. The whole bit about the dust storm disrupting things has been overblown, pardon the pun. I believe that Martian winds are not quite as fierce as on Earth, even the ones that whipped dust all over Mars in 1971. Note that the Soviets were quite big on blaming natural causes for the failure of their space probes, rather than any problems with their Glorious People's Technology. When Mars 1 stopped transmitting before it reached Mars in 1963 (even though it set a distance record at the time), the Soviets blamed a meteor hit rather than any problems with the communications equipment. It was purely a guess on their part, as they had no way to detect such a strike, especially one that would knock out the probe as a result. At least we know that Mars 3 is intact on the surface and its parachute and heatshield are not too far off. As for Mars 2 and 6, I wonder how easily MRO can tell a relatively recent artificial crater from an older natural one? -------------------- "After having some business dealings with men, I am occasionally chagrined,
and feel as if I had done some wrong, and it is hard to forget the ugly circumstance. I see that such intercourse long continued would make one thoroughly prosaic, hard, and coarse. But the longest intercourse with Nature, though in her rudest moods, does not thus harden and make coarse. A hard, sensible man whom we liken to a rock is indeed much harder than a rock. From hard, coarse, insensible men with whom I have no sympathy, I go to commune with the rocks, whose hearts are comparatively soft." - Henry David Thoreau, November 15, 1853 |
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Jan 6 2007, 10:10 AM
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#4
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Member Group: Members Posts: 117 Joined: 7-December 06 From: Sheffield UK Member No.: 1462 |
The more likely answer is that the Mars 3 relay orbiter went out of range for the lander or there was a communications problem with the orbiter. The whole bit about the dust storm disrupting things has been overblown, pardon the pun. I believe that Martian winds are not quite as fierce as on Earth, even the ones that whipped dust all over Mars in 1971. Note that the Soviets were quite big on blaming natural causes for the failure of their space probes, rather than any problems with their Glorious People's Technology. When Mars 1 stopped transmitting before it reached Mars in 1963 (even though it set a distance record at the time), the Soviets blamed a meteor hit rather than any problems with the communications equipment. It was purely a guess on their part, as they had no way to detect such a strike, especially one that would knock out the probe as a result. At least we know that Mars 3 is intact on the surface and its parachute and heatshield are not too far off. As for Mars 2 and 6, I wonder how easily MRO can tell a relatively recent artificial crater from an older natural one? So far we've only got a good up close look at one Martian crater definately known to be artificial. http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050209.html Notice how this mini crater displays the dark ejecta seen around far larger and natural recent craters. I think natural and artificial craters will be indistinguishable unless some debris is still present. -------------------- It's a funny old world - A man's lucky if he gets out of it alive. - W.C. Fields.
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