The Beagle is Stranded. -----Original Message----- From: Larry Barnes [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Friday, December 26, 2003 9:56 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [HP3000-L] OT: Christmas Day on Mars The Beagle has landed, by all indications no fire hydrants have been found yet! -----Original Message----- From: Denys Beauchemin [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Thursday, December 25, 2003 10:26 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [HP3000-L] OT: Christmas Day on Mars No Mars signal from the Beagle probe. (Yet.) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3344693.stm Denys -----Original Message----- From: HP-3000 Systems Discussion [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Wirt Atmar Sent: Wednesday, December 24, 2003 1:46 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [HP3000-L] OT: Christmas Day on Mars We're on our way to Mars again. The Beagle II, named after Darwin's ship of discovery and now part of the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft, is scheduled to land on Mars tomorrow, on Christmas Day. It is my understanding that a successful landing will be announced with the words, "The Beagle has landed." Wirt Atmar ======================================= ESA News <A HREF="http://www.esa.int">http://www.esa.int</A> 24 December 2003 Mars Express status report ... At 09:30 CET today [0830 UTC], the Mars Express orbiter was 200,000 kilometres from Mars and 156,000,000 kilometres from Earth. The orbiter is on its final planned course for Mars Orbit Insertion (MOI). The spacecraft will hit its intended MOI 'bull's eye' point, 414 kilometres above the Martian surface, to within an accuracy of six kilometres. The retargeting manoeuvre performed by ESOC Mission Control on Saturday, 20 December, was so accurate that the additional 'fine-tuning' manoeuvre scheduled for 23 December was judged to be unnecessary and not performed. Mission Control is currently placing the spacecraft in its final configuration for MOI. The fuel tanks are being heated and the latch valves checked in preparation for a 34-minute main engine burn, due to place the spacecraft into Martian orbit in the early hours of Christmas morning. All non-essential equipment is currently being turned off to minimise the possibility of the spacecraft entering 'safe mode'. This process is due to conclude around 12:00 CET [1100 UTC] when the spacecraft's Solid State Mass Memory is switched off. No further commands are due to be sent to Mars Express until after MOI. Flight Director Michael McKay said, "From this point the tension really starts to grow. We don't have a lot more to do except watch and wait. The time within which we can do something reduces very rapidly. "But if anything unexpected does occur then we would be ready to jump in and recover the situation, applying all the professionalism and skill of the ESA and industrial teams gathered here at ESOC Mission Control." ======================================== * To join/leave the list, search archives, change list settings, * * etc., please visit http://raven.utc.edu/archives/hp3000-l.html * * To join/leave the list, search archives, change list settings, * * etc., please visit http://raven.utc.edu/archives/hp3000-l.html * * To join/leave the list, search archives, change list settings, * * etc., please visit http://raven.utc.edu/archives/hp3000-l.html * * To join/leave the list, search archives, change list settings, * * etc., please visit http://raven.utc.edu/archives/hp3000-l.html *