[X] My Assistant

[Guest_Sunspot_*]

The Atmosphere at high altitude may have been to thin to slow Bealge 2 enough during the entry, article here:

"The Beagle 2 lander could have crashed into Mars because the atmosphere on the planet was less dense than expected.

UK mission scientists told a London meeting the probe may simply have been going too fast for its parachute and airbags to bring about a soft landing. "

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3543295.stm

[djellison]

This ties in with the suggestion that Beagle 2's slightly pointier heatshield ( 60 degrees instead of 70 degrees of the rovers and pathfinder ) - would cause the altitude at which the parachute would deploy to be too low.

It was scarey enough with the Rovers, deploying a mile too low

They took the design for B2s heatshield from Huygens - but of course, Hugyens is enterting the MUCH thicker Titan atmosphere ( 1.5 x earth - so approx 150 times mars)

The heatshield design itself was ok -it just had to low a Cd

Suggestions of pictures of bits of lander on the ground from MOC - if they show them at the public thing tonight - I'll be posting them tomorrow

Doug