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2004-09-08 Home Front: Tech

And you thought Beagle 2 was a beer barrel...

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Posted by Howard UK 2004-09-08 13:56|| || Front Page|| [11126 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Guess the helicopter should have been carrying a big pillow instead of a hook.

Posted by ed 2004-09-08 2:23:51 PM|| 2004-09-08 2:23:51 PM|| Front Page Top

#2 Oy. Looks like a publicity still from The Andromeda Strain. Why not splash-land it at sea the way God intended?

Posted by Jonathan 2004-09-08 2:27:43 PM|| [http://www.workaround.blogspot.com] 2004-09-08 2:27:43 PM|| Front Page Top

#3 Oh, no! The bacteria from space has been let loose! Everyone to their bomb shelters!

Posted by nada 2004-09-08 3:19:03 PM|| 2004-09-08 3:19:03 PM|| Front Page Top

#4 Nada--That's exactly what I thought when I heard this! Remember when the Apollo 11 astronauts were put in that quarantine capsule after returning from the moon--and Nixon was outside the capsule greeting them?

Nice job, guys! Feel free to take more of my tax money and waste it!

Posted by Dar 2004-09-08 3:52:19 PM|| 2004-09-08 3:52:19 PM|| Front Page Top

#5 a parachute that was to slow its fall failed to deploy

"Roberts, did you pack the chute like I told you to?"

"Sure, boss, it's right here. Why?"

Posted by Steve 2004-09-08 4:39:41 PM|| 2004-09-08 4:39:41 PM|| Front Page Top

#6 Dar -- I remember seeing footage of the Apollo mission and the quarantine, and I also remember all the worry warts talking about not bringing back any samples from Mars. I think it's a legit worry, but man, we've become a risk averse society.

I love this kind of stuff, so it's tragic they potentially lost $260Million worth of time and samples. At least the Mars Rovers are working well.

Here's a link with some video footage. Kinda humorous listening to the MSNBC reporter. Kept talking about, "Yeah, now the first parachute deployed. Okay, here's the second one," and the people in the newsroom are saying they don't see anything but a tumbling silver thing. Isn't MSNBC the ones who got Martha Stewart's trial results all screwed up, too?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5942268/

Posted by nada 2004-09-08 4:46:49 PM|| 2004-09-08 4:46:49 PM|| Front Page Top

#7 nada-We can't talk to the marsrover for a few days. Mars is now behind / to close to line of site with the sun from us.

Yeah, now the first parachute deployed. Okay, here's the second one," Oops sensors are broken. Oops spacecraft is scrap-metal.

Posted by BigEd 2004-09-08 5:35:16 PM|| 2004-09-08 5:35:16 PM|| Front Page Top

#8 At lest Beagle 2 only cost the same as a good piss-up.

Posted by Howard UK 2004-09-08 5:37:05 PM|| 2004-09-08 5:37:05 PM|| Front Page Top

EVOLUTION!

Posted by BigEd 2004-09-08 5:37:31 PM|| 2004-09-08 5:37:31 PM|| Front Page Top

#10 BigEd -- been watching the hurricanes the last week or so, and didn't realize about mars. kinda far away. did you watch the video link? the scrap metal also had a little fire going in it, too.

what's the picture? i'm only seeing a little "x."

Posted by nada 2004-09-08 7:42:39 PM|| 2004-09-08 7:42:39 PM|| Front Page Top

#11 This spacecraft had one of the longest lives in space of any "collect and bring back" mission IIRC. There's a lot that goes into firing the chute releases ... if the metal weathered a little too much, it could cause this sort of misfire.

Later missions had a little different design, I'm told ....

Posted by rkb 2004-09-08 9:06:13 PM|| 2004-09-08 9:06:13 PM|| Front Page Top

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