
Lost Beagle2 probe found 'intact' on Mars - mhw
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-30784886
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mrcarrot
I hadn't realised Colin Pillinger had died. I've found the news oddly
affecting considering I never met the guy. :(

(For anyone interested in the background to the Beagle2 probe, 'Backroom
Boys'[1] includes a great chapter on it, and Prof Pillinger's involvement .)

[1]: [http://www.amazon.co.uk/Backroom-Boys-Secret-Return-
British-...](http://www.amazon.co.uk/Backroom-Boys-Secret-Return-British-
ebook/dp/B004FN1K48/)

~~~
jgrahamc
Thumbs up for that book. The section about the development of mobile telephony
is great.

~~~
arethuza
The section on Elite was pretty interesting as well - I can remember being
amazed playing it on an Acorn Electron in '84/'85.

Colin Pillinger seemed like a great bloke though, I really did feel sorry for
him when the probe failed.

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coroxout
Yes, I loved the Elite section - I bought the book after reading an excerpt
from the Elite chapter in the Guardian [0] - and the Concorde section.

I had also missed the news of Colin Pillinger's death; RIP.

[0] Probably this one, should anyone else be curious:
[http://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/oct/18/features.weeken...](http://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/oct/18/features.weekend)

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graupel
This seems like something right out of The Martian (which I am 75% through
reading, and highly recommend) -
[http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18007564-the-
martian](http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18007564-the-martian)

~~~
mabbo
Love the book. Scared about the movie. Matt Damon seems an odd cast for the
role. He's not that kind of funny.

~~~
iamdave
You should watch Dogma, I know it's been quite a while but he's absolutely
hilarious in it.

~~~
mabbo
The character is a clown who is stuck in a serious situation. He's a funny
guy, a joker, and that keeps him alive.

Matt Damon is a serious actor, who can do a serious character. Put a serious
character into a funny situation, and it can be very funny. But put a serious
character actor into a funny man role, and well... I'm hopeful, but worried.

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allcentury
One time in a interview I got asked "If two robots are lost on mars and can't
communicate with one another, how do they find each other? - please write a
program outlining your thoughts"

I just want to be clear it took an actual space agency 11 years to pull this
off and the company I interviewed at just backed up data for people.

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fargolime
I'm guessing one stays put and the other does a grid pattern search.

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ksrm
How does each robot decide whether to stay put or not if it can't communicate
with the other?

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fargolime
Ha, good point. Could be pre-arranged. But if something can be pre-arranged, I
like mikeash's answer.

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XorNot
Part of me hears stuff like this and just goes "let's get Curiosity to motor
on over and..."

I am kind of hoping that at some point we'll drop a high-speed rover of some
sort on Mars. Even if you took 6 months or a year, being able to cover a
decent chunk of the planet would be a heck of a capability.

~~~
nacnud
.. or one inside a mesh cage that can roll and jump in a chosen direction. :)

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zaroth
Was it just chance that the cameras would pass over that location, or was fuel
spent, or other priorities diverted to discover this? That would be
interesting to know, because I somewhat hope someone had to make sure we got
these images and answers.

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netcraft
It looks like it might be as simple as one of the solar panels not flipping
out to expose the radio. Such bad luck. Really goes to show how many things on
a mission like this has to go right.

~~~
gadders
Hindsight is 20/20, but maybe they should have planned for a less than perfect
landing.

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Cthulhu_
They did actually, the thing was designed to drop on a random angle and bounce
around for a while on airbags until it came to a full stop, before said
airbags would deflate and it would self-right itself by opening up. Here's an
image with it having landed on an uneven surface:
[http://freespace.virgin.net/michael.jennings1/beagle.jpg](http://freespace.virgin.net/michael.jennings1/beagle.jpg)

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theandrewbailey
This is a good 'accidental' postmortem and provides a good example of how to
not design a probe. Having many large parts move before radio contact is
possible is bad design.

I have a new project: compare designs of Martian missions that succeeded, and
contrast against those that didn't.

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nacnud
Easy to say, but given the shoestring nature of the budget, perhaps more risk
had to be taken.

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kefka
Look north(?) of the probe about 6m. There's a white spot that seems to match
the probe.

After reading the description regarding incomplete petal opening, it appears
that one of the petals separated.

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teamonkey
I think that's unlikely based on the design. Beagle 2 was in a flattened
cylinder, a bit like a hat box, that was sealed shut to protect it on entry.
After becoming stationary, the 'lid' would flip open and the round solar
petals would unfurl.

If the lid opened allowing one of the petals to unfurl and break off during
landing I wouldn't expect the rest of the petals to unfurl perfectly.

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Houshalter
Is there any chance it still works at all? Probably not but I'm just curious.
They said the problem was that the antenna was blocked under the solar panel.

