Wreckage Of Beagle 2 Found? Options

[imran]

Wreckage of Beagle found scattered in Mars crater

Talk about being unlucky assuming this is confirmed.

[Guest_BruceMoomaw_*]

Oh, gadfry, Messenger, are you still peddling that stuff about major violations of the laws of gravity elsewhere in the Solar System? Especially when the only thing we need to explain these crashes is the major fluctuation in Mars' air density already known to exist?

And Mars 3, don't forget, actually made it to the surface -- it just broke down, for unknown reasons, 90 seconds later. V.S. Perminov, who was associated with the Soviet Mars program, writes that he suspects a static discharge caused by the major planetwide dust storm in which Mars 3 landed as a possible cause (and, in fact, static discharge was also listed as one of the multitude of possible causes for the Deep Space 2 failures).

He also provides -- for the first time, I think -- an explanation for the Mars 2 crash: because of the Soviets' lack of faith in the quality of their own deep-space radio tracking, the craft was equipped with its own Autonav system that sighted on Mars several days before encounter and made a final automatic course correction to put the lander into the right entry corridor. But because the Soviets had slightly incorrrect data on Mars' true ephemeris (which, ironically, was corrected only a year later during the US/Soviet exchange of planetary probe information), the lander entered at too steep an angle and therefore crashed (shades of Mars Climate Orbiter!) He doesn't speculate on the cause of the Mars 6 failure -- although, given all those crumbling transistors on the 1973 Mars probes, it may simply have failed to fire its last-second retrorocket.

[ljk4-1]

And Mars 3, don't forget, actually made it to the surface -- it just broke down, for unknown reasons, 90 seconds later.  V.S. Perminov, who was associated with the Soviet Mars program, writes that he suspects a static discharge caused by the major planetwide dust storm in which Mars 3 landed as a possible cause (and, in fact, static discharge was also listed as one of the multitude of possible causes for the Deep Space 2 failures). 

I remember reading that Mars 3 may have kept working just fine on the surface - it was the orbiter that somehow lost the link with the lander. Any details on this?

I wonder if it stored any data onboard? Would it still be readable if so? Yes, I realize I am talking about a 1971 Soviet computer.

[RNeuhaus]

I remember reading that Mars 3 may have kept working just fine on the surface - it was the orbiter that somehow lost the link with the lander.  Any details on this?

I wonder if it stored any data onboard?  Would it still be readable if so?  Yes, I realize I am talking about a 1971 Soviet computer.

Enclosed is the data from astronautix web page about Mars 3 correspondient to Soviet unmmaned space M-71 :May 1971 Mars 3 Program: Mars. Launch Site: Baikonur . Launch Vehicle: Proton 8K82K / 11S824. Mass: 4,643 kg. Perigee: 1,528 km. Apogee: 214,500 km. Inclination: 60.0 deg.:
The descent module (COSPAR 1971-049F) was released at 09:14 GMT on 2 December 1971 about 4.5 hours before reaching Mars. Through aerodynamic braking, parachutes, and retro-rockets, the lander achieved a soft landing at 45 S, 158 W and began operations. However, after 20 sec the instruments stopped working for unknown reasons. Meanwhile, the orbiter engine performed a burn to put the spacecraft into a long 11-day period orbit about Mars with an inclination thought to be similar to that of Mars 2 (48.9 degrees). Data was sent back for many months.

Cherry Christmas

Rodolfo