The Beagle is scheduled for a Christmas Day landing, and the American machines are scheduled for landings within weeks of the Beagle's landing. Can we make this our official Mars Exploration thread?
Here are some good links....(fetching them, will edit this post shortly)
Well crap, I did a search but didn't scroll all the way through the posts to see the telemetry and such...only the patch discussions....okay, this thread will either live or die, lock or unlock....
Well crap, I did a search but didn't scroll all the way through the posts to see the telemetry and such...only the patch discussions....okay, this thread will either live or die, lock or unlock....
as for earthly comparisons of look and size... from SpaceImaging
Quote:
Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado, USA [above]
This five-meter resolution black-and-white image of Great Sand Dunes National Park was taken by the Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellite. The 30 square-mile park showcases North America's largest and tallest dunes rising over 700 feet. The dunes are formed as sand blowing northeast over the San Luis Valley is deposited at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range.
but there are some "City eating dunes" on earth... from NASA
I was actually thinking that our sand dunes are larger, but I suppose dunes come in all sizes and depend greatly on the terrain and consistency of the sand / debris being mounded.
This is an amazing Mars photo of the so called 'Fortune Cookies" on a plateau. Apparently they are dust-dunes illuminated when the sun is at a certain angle.
I finally looked at that again and saw it "correctly". At first it looked like those things were standing on-end, but the curves are from one lateral direction to the opposing one, not from the surface of Mars upward. Like fortune cookies laying flat. At first I thought they were tower-like structures. I was ready to cue the Twilight Zone music.
Still, they could be the work of some sinister Martian burrowing creature we are about to discover.
Hey, the Beagle should be down and (hopefully) safe in about two or three hours....it's interesting that the "down and safe" tone is a short tune written by Brit-pop band Blur. If you're in Europe you can download the tune, but there's a charge. I sure do wish they'd just put it out there as a .mid file and let us port it into our own phones with Bluetooth. Still, somebody has to make money on this thing...maybe that commercial tie-in was thought to be a way to help pay off the bill?
Well it's around 2am EST and no confirmation yet on Beagle2's status. By the time I wake up there ought to be some word on the state of the lander.....but I'll be too busy drinking eggnog and singing songs to worry about stupid old Mars. At least for a few hours anyway.
Comments
Originally posted by drewprops
The Beagle is scheduled for a Christmas Day landing, and the American machines are scheduled for landings within weeks of the Beagle's landing. Can we make this our official Mars Exploration thread?
Here are some good links....(fetching them, will edit this post shortly)
we have a Mars probe thread, including telemetry
more Beagle news from Space.com
and the official Beagle 2 homepage
Red planet Santa sightings to follow
Here's the Athena Cornell page for the US Mars rovers
Originally posted by drewprops
Well crap, I did a search but didn't scroll all the way through the posts to see the telemetry and such...only the patch discussions....okay, this thread will either live or die, lock or unlock....
Here's the Athena Cornell page for the US Mars rovers
This thread wont die : he will just be merged.
Originally posted by Powerdoc
This thread wont die : he will just be merged.
Merci beaucoup, Powerdoc.
...about 200 feet in diameter give or take? Strange size for a sand dune.
Originally posted by Moogs
Those dune things are amazing. So if that image is about 2km across... those things must be... what? 1/30 that amount... so...
...about 200 feet in diameter give or take? Strange size for a sand dune.
Mars Global Surveyor snapped these dunes in Proctor Crater
Martian dunes tend to be larger than Terran ones due to lower gravity
as for earthly comparisons of look and size... from SpaceImaging
Great Sand Dunes National Park, Colorado, USA [above]
This five-meter resolution black-and-white image of Great Sand Dunes National Park was taken by the Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellite. The 30 square-mile park showcases North America's largest and tallest dunes rising over 700 feet. The dunes are formed as sand blowing northeast over the San Luis Valley is deposited at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo mountain range.
but there are some "City eating dunes" on earth... from NASA
cue the Land Shark from SNL.
The Spirit team has postponed future updates to their weblog until the rover is in Gustav crater.
Originally posted by segovius
This is an amazing Mars photo of the so called 'Fortune Cookies" on a plateau. Apparently they are dust-dunes illuminated when the sun is at a certain angle.
More pics here
So we had it wrong...it's MARS that's made of cheese...no the moon, silly us.
Still, they could be the work of some sinister Martian burrowing creature we are about to discover.
Boowahhhahahahahahahaaaa
You hate 'em, I hate 'em.......
Hey, the Beagle should be down and (hopefully) safe in about two or three hours....it's interesting that the "down and safe" tone is a short tune written by Brit-pop band Blur. If you're in Europe you can download the tune, but there's a charge. I sure do wish they'd just put it out there as a .mid file and let us port it into our own phones with Bluetooth. Still, somebody has to make money on this thing...maybe that commercial tie-in was thought to be a way to help pay off the bill?
Merry Christmas!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3344693.stm
I do hope thay get that signal.
Originally posted by Alpha Mac
No signal form Beagle2...Yet
Well we know who to blame. Saddam.
Originally posted by Scott
It's so disappointing losing all these landers.
Beagle is not yet lost.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3347991.stm
He (Pillinger) said the team was considering five possible explanations:
Beagle is on Mars but not where expected.
Its lid and antenna are pointed in the wrong direction.
A computer glitch after landing has affected the timing for switching on the transmitter.
There is a mismatch between the communications system of Mars Odyssey and Beagle.
Something has failed during entry, descent or landing