Beagle2 found

[sal_vager]

It depends if the antenna can function with a solar panel on top of it, I doubt it is able.

[Frida Space]

There is a chance they can regain control of the thing. On very sunny days there might be enough power for communications. Also if you think there's no way to get control, think about what Rosseta's been through until it reached its target.

From what I understood and what my (very limited) experience tells me, there's no way we can regain control of it. Although we don't know how it failed, it probably had enough power to communicate in the first place, but it simply couldn't either because of a hard landing or because of some other engineering issue.

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And what do you mean by "think about what Rosseta's been through until it reached its target"? Rosetta has never lost contact with ground control. If you are referring to Philae, well the landing was a success, so again I don't know what you mean.

[KerikBalm]

Well, it did lose contact in a planned way... going into hibernation when the solar power was too low due to the distance.

This thing may or may not have those other panels attached (its still possible that not all the airbags deployed, and it hada rough tumble, shedding a petal or two, among other damage).

They've been sitting there a long time, and as we saw with spirit and opporotunity, the dust accumulation reduces power output. Half the panels deployed + years of dust = not very much power available.

Then there's the antanaee being blocked/ who knows what sort of damage.

Nope, thats a dead probe... It would be pretty cool to visit in the distant future... like finding an old shipwreck... In SPAAAAACCCCEEEEE!!!!!!!

[Camacha]

Guys, powering up is not the only problem. Mars conditions are harsh, and we learnt from the MER rovers that a robot that goes idle without power is almost certainly dead, as in, broken dead. Internal heat stops being generated because there is no power and things freeze to bits. You drop well outside of design specifications.

Mars is an unforgiving place. Expect the thing to be total junk, even if it survived the landing intact.

Edited January 16, 2015 by Camacha

[Louella]

one of the somewhat sad things about space exploration, is that, in order to find out what exactly caused Beagle 2 not to function correctly, it pretty much requires someone to be there and investigate.

But if we had the technology to get a person there to retrieve it, then the cause of the malfunction would by then be academic, rather than particularly useful, because technology had moved on by a lot, so the knowledge of what went wrong, doesn't really help anymore.

[Frida Space]

It's not a problem of waking up again now  it can't. Transmitting to Earth requires all of the solar panels deployed, and it doesn't appear to have done so.

[Camacha]

It's not a problem of waking up again now  it can't. Transmitting to Earth requires all of the solar panels deployed, and it doesn't appear to have done so.

And, again, the whole thing will be a wreck, and probably has been since the first winter. It is junk, so any discussions about having enough power for this or that are academic and moot.

Edited January 16, 2015 by Camacha

[xenomorph555]

This is great, all we need to do is find Mars-3! and Luna-9 while were at it.

[Frida Space]

This is great, all we need to do is find Mars-3! and Luna-9 while were at it.

Found! http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/news/mro2013411.html

[xenomorph555]

Found! http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/news/mro2013411.html

Epic, thanks!

[Vanamonde]

Nearly simultaneous threads on the same subject merged.

[battlefieldaces]

Besides the planned hibernation(that rosetta wasn't designed to do) it had problems with the RCS system and reaction wheels, not to mention a mini asteroid impact.

[Moar Boosters]

It's not a problem of waking up again now  it can't. Transmitting to Earth requires all of the solar panels deployed, and it doesn't appear to have done so.

I expect Jebediah would be able to fix it with some spare batteries and a space-hammer.

It appears to have achieved so many of it's objectives to get down as intact as it is. It's a shame it wasn't discovered earlier, before the Beagle 3 plans were rejected. If they'd known how close they were to success I expect it'd have weighed heavily in their favor regarding, especially considering the success rates of previous mars landers.