Mars Exploration 1: Unmanned Missions (Probes; Rovers; etc.)

[rynner2]

Found three references to cork insulation in rockets:

Today, mechanical and fluid systems create the most operations delays and verification problems, whereas electrical and electronic systems are already well-instrumented and tend to be reliable. For example, on the Delta launch vehicle, more time is spent in mating the strap-on solid-fuel rocket motors to the liquid rocket, fitting the cork insulation, and doing the leak check on the pneumatic hydraulic systems than in checking out the entire electronic system.

1997: Delta 2 launch scrubbed again due to problem in confirmation of water flow for sound suppression on the launch pad. Reset for 11 January but later postponed to NET 19 January due to discovery that small portions of cork insulation on the first stage LOX tank were coming adrift.

Minuteman missile: Prior to connecting the stages, the cork insulation is repaired, if required. This involves material containing epoxy and cork mix.

Not sure if the cork/epoxy mix is just used for repairs, or if this is also used for the insulation itself.

 

[Anome]

This just in.

Mars Express Loses Communication With Beagle-2

Those damn martians did it again! They're too nervous about protecting their weather-control machinery.

 

[rynner2]

That link gives a 404, Anome.

I found it via Google too, and that was also 404. No news on the Beeb or Spaceflight Now - perhaps the Beagle fault was fixed, and they pulled the story? (Hope so!)

 

[Anome]

Maybe you're right. Can't find it through the online search at the ABC site. (Still, I would have expected them to leave it on site, and put up an update explaining what had happened. It's possible they've moved it from Just In to another folder, and the indexes haven't been updated yet.)

I hope they have re-established the link. For those who haven't seen the story (which would be most of you) - it was just the radio link between Mars Express and Beagle-2 that was lost. (The two vehicles would still be together at this point, but a failure of the radio link now may mean problems when Beagle-2 hits the ground, especially as it was going to be using Mars Express as a repeater station.)

Here's hoping they re-established contact.

[EDIT]This just in.
It seems that the Russian space agency was lying to us.

The European Space Agency (ESA) denied today a report by its Russian counterpart that its just-launched mission to Mars had been hit by a major communications problem.

The Russian agency, Rosaviakosmos, said yesterday that communications were down between the onboard computer of the Mars Express orbiter, en route for the Red Planet, and the Beagle-2, a British-built lander which it carries.

A spokeswoman for ESA's operation centre in Darmstadt, Germany, denied this, saying operations "are proceeding quite normally."

"There was a small difficulty with the orbiter at the end of last week," the spokeswoman, Jocelyne Landeau, said.

"The necessary checks have been made and, in order to give themselves a sufficient safety margin, the engineers have decided to take the precaution of delaying the communications tests between the orbiter and Beagle 2," she said. "The tests should take place by the end of the week."

She added that there was no reason for any concern and that the mission was "in no way threatened" by the hitch. Mars Express was launched on June 2, heading a trio of European and US robot missions to the Red Planet that will, if all things go well, be joined by a Japanese probe at the end of the year.

Beagle-2 is a small stationary lander carrying instruments that seek to confirm suspicions, drawn from pictures by orbiting American probes, about the presence of water on Mars.
At present, the lander is attached to the belly of Mars Express. They are scheduled to separate when they get close to their destination in December, and Beagle-2 is likely to land on December 25.

 

[rynner2]

New Scientist version:

Memory error interrupts Mars Express testing

18:32 24 June 03

NewScientist.com news service

An anomaly with a key computer memory unit aboard Europe's Mars Express, currently speeding towards the red planet, has interrupted remote testing of the spacecraft, the European Space Agency revealed on Tuesday.

"These kinds of events are considered routine in a space mission," a statement from ESA says. "But engineers would like to understand the causes before re-starting the instrument tests." Mars Express carries seven scientific instruments that will conduct a top-to-bottom search for water on the planet.

On 20 June New Scientist discovered that mission controllers at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany, had received a message that they were not expecting from the spacecraft.

The statement released by ESA now reveals that the spacecraft's Solid State Mass Memory (SSMM) unit - used to store scientific data before transmission back to Earth - produced an error during testing of the craft's Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (OMEGA).

ESA says the problem disappeared spontaneously and the memory unit is now working normally. But the spacecraft's operators are keen to determine the cause of the error and further testing of the spacecraft has been set back to preserve the relevant data stored in the SSMM.

Crucial test

Also on Tuesday, ESA rejected as inaccurate a Russian report suggesting that the Mars Express has been unable to communicate with Beagle 2 because of a computer problem. An ESOC spokeswoman said, apart from the delay, operations were "proceeding quite normally".

But the interruption has set back the first activation of the British-built Mars lander Beagle 2, which is aboard Mars Express. Engineers had planned to boot up the probe's computers on 20 June, but this will not now happen until 4 July at the earliest. It will be a crucial test, as it will show how well the lander survived the rigours of take-off.

There is still plenty of time to test both Mars Express and Beagle 2, as they will not arrive at the red planet until late December. Beagle 2 should then separate and touch down on the planet's surface on 25 December and begin its search for signs of water and, perhaps, life.

 

[rynner2]

Mission Status Center for Mars Rover 'Opportunity'. Launch due Sunday 1356 GMT. (Reload the link at any time for updates.)

Meanwhile, new combined measurements suggest up to 90% water ice in Martian permafrost at high northern latitudes.

 

[rynner2]

Beeb report of upcoming launch provides this graphic of spacecraft positions:

 

[rynner2]

Here we go again...

Mars probe launch delayed

The US space agency Nasa has postponed the launch of its latest probe to Mars.

The Opportunity rover is packed inside the fairing for launch
The roving vehicle - named Opportunity - was due to blast off at 2356 local time (0356 GMT on Sunday), but the mission was delayed for 24 hours because of high winds at Cape Canaveral in Florida.

Opportunity is the second vehicle built to roam Mars' rocky surface on a three-month mission to explore the Red Planet.

The probe will fly into space on a Boeing Delta II rocket.

The mission should have begun earlier in the week, but Boeing insisted on changing some cork insulation tiling on the rocket's second stage which appeared not to be stuck down properly.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3026722.stm

 

[rynner2]

It's that cork again...

SUNDAY, JUNE 29, 2003
2245 GMT (6:45 p.m. EDT)

The 300 million mile voyage from Earth to Mars for NASA's Opportunity rover won't begin until at least Wednesday night so workers can fix a ring of insulating material on the Boeing Delta 2 rocket.

For the second time in eight days, officials have been forced to postpone the Mars Exploration Rover-B launch to make repairs on the troublesome band of cork on the rocket's first stage.

Last week the band was removed and replaced after technicians discovered that the cork and the adhesive were not bonding properly, NASA said. Inspections performed early Sunday -- after super-cold liquid oxygen was drained from the first stage following the scrubbed countdown -- revealed sections of the new band were not adhering to the rocket's skin, the space agency announced.

"They aren't sure what is causing these problems," NASA spokesman George Diller said.

Problem areas of the ring -- about 10 percent of the entire band -- will have to be reinstalled before the Wednesday night launch attempt, NASA said.

The cork material is used to provide thermal protection on the rocket. The insulator shields against the heating of ascent.

Located near the forward attach points of the strap-on solid rocket boosters, the band extends all the way around the first stage. It is about two-feet in width and a quarter-inch thick, according to NASA.

The two available launch times on Wednesday night are: 11:17:37 p.m. and 11:59:54 p.m. EDT.

The Opportunity rover's window to make its departure for Mars extends to July 15.

They are already having to use a more powerful rocket than the one which launched Spirit, because of the less favourable launch window. If they don't sort it soon, we could be talking of a lost Opportunity...

[I'll get me coat]

 

[Anome]

Re: It's that cork again...

They are already having to use a more powerful rocket than the one which launched Spirit, because of the less favourable launch window. If they don't sort it soon, we could be talking of a lost Opportunity...

[I'll get me coat]

Hey, stop it with those Opportunity Knocks...

No, that's not mine. Why?

 

[Anonymous]

For the second time in eight days, officials have been forced to postpone the Mars Exploration Rover-B launch to make repairs on the troublesome band of cork on the rocket's first stage.

Last week the band was removed and replaced after technicians discovered that the cork and the adhesive were not bonding properly, ...

We're having similiar problems.

The guys laying linoleum in the hall and kitchen brought the wrong size piece and had to order a replacement. They don't know how the original problem occurred either.

I didn't know you could use linoleum in space as well, though!

 

[Anome]

Actually, I think the whole thing's taking on a Goonish appearance: "You can't get the wood you know."

I hope they get it together in time. I'd hate to see them waste another valuable opportunity simply because of poor quality control. (Their QA people really need to get their act together.)

 

[rynner2]

Mars Express 'on 70% power'

Europe's first Mars space craft is suffering from a power glitch.

However, controllers believe it will make no difference to the mission itself.

Engineers carrying out routine checks on Mars Express as it speeds though space have found it is down to 70% power.

A faulty connection between the craft's solar wings and a unit that distributes the electricity generated by the arrays is to blame.

The power shortage is expected to have no impact on the state of the space craft or the mission objectives.

The European Space Agency (Esa) said in its latest mission statement: "This anomaly has no effect on the state of the space craft and has no impact on the mission during the whole trip to Mars, including the orbit insertion phase once at destination."

Operations review

Jocelyne Landeau of Esa's operations centre in Darmstadt, Germany, told BBC News Online it was too early to say what the full implications of the power shortage would be.

Overall, the spacecraft is in good shape

Rudolf Schmidt
She said the situation would be assessed in the coming weeks in collaboration with scientists and Esa officials.

The problem should have no impact on the space craft's journey to Mars or the life time of the mission.

However, it may mean changes to how the various instruments on Mars Express are deployed once it arrives at the planet.

"For the moment the general spirit is that we can carry out the mission, there is no doubt about it," Ms Landau said.

The testing phase is part of a series of standard "health checks" that are carried out on all space craft on the way to their destination. The Beagle 2 lander is scheduled to be checked this weekend.

Esa officials are confident about the mission. "In fact," says Rudolf Schmidt, Mars Express Project Manager, "overall, the spacecraft is in good shape. We are simply getting to know its personality."

Close approach

Mars Express is now 10 million kilometres from the Earth. It should arrive at the Red Planet on 25 December 2003.

The European probe is currently at the head of a fleet of three space craft heading to the fourth planet from the Sun.

Just behind it is the US space agency's Spirit rover; and behind that is Nozomi, a Japanese satellite that will go into orbit around Mars.

The Americans have a second rover, Opportunity, which they hope to launch on Saturday. All the space craft are timed to arrive within days of each other.

They are taking advantage of a close alignment between Mars and Earth which makes it a particularly favourable time to be heading to the Red Planet.

(Yep, Opportunity was delayed yet again by that pesky cork insulation. Could be Sunday launch now.)

 

[Timble2]

Oh Bugger...

Something goes wrong on every launch let's hope this is it for Mars Express:

Full story at:
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993909

Glitch cuts Mars Express power to 70 percent

17:28 03 July 03
Will Knight


A technical glitch aboard Europe's Mars Express spacecraft, currently speeding towards the red planet, has cut the available electrical power to 70 per cent, mission controllers have revealed.

The European Space Agency (ESA) says the power problem should not impact upon the spacecraft's ability to perform its scientific mission. But it may require a rethink of the times at which the spacecraft's seven different instruments are used.

"It's a hitch," ESA spokesman Franco Bonacina told New Scientist. "They're scratching their heads and will come up with a solution as quickly as possible." The spacecraft's managers currently think they will be able to juggle the instrument schedule so that the total amount of scientific data collected by the mission is not reduced.

Engineers discovered a fault with the connection between the spacecraft's solar panels and its power distribution unit during a routine check-up this week. ESA has not announced any plans to try to repair the fault....


...ESA says the power problem will not affect the first post-launch activation of Beagle 2, which is scheduled to take place on Friday 4 and Saturday 5 July.


17:28 03 July 03

 

[rynner2]

Keep up, Timble - I posted the Beeb version of that story yesterday!

 

[Timble2]

Sorry Rynner missed it, doh!

 

[rynner2]

Another delay:

The launch of the MER-B Mars Exploration Rover "Opportunity" aboard a Boeing Delta 2 rocket has been postponed an additional 24 hours. The delay is due to the failure of a battery cell associated with a component of the launch vehicle's flight termination system. The battery must be removed and replaced.

Launch is now targeted for no earlier than Monday, July 7. The two launch times available are 10:35:23 and 11:18:15 p.m. EDT. The forecast calls for a 30 percent chance of not meeting the launch weather criteria on Monday evening.

At Pad 17B, a tanking test of the Delta rocket was conducted Saturday morning. The first stage was loaded with cryogenic liquid oxygen to evaluate the bonding of the lower band of cork thermal insulation. Saturday afternoon, NASA and Boeing managers met to discuss the outcome of the tanking test and other associated testing and engineering evaluations that have been conducted over the last several days.

After the tanking, inspections revealed some selective debonding of the cork from the surface of the vehicle within a limited area. These locations are being repaired using a different adhesive with a stronger bonding characteristic as demonstrated by tests conducted at KSC late this week. This work was completed Saturday night and the problem has been resolved to the satisfaction of engineers.

http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/merb/status.html


And here is a picture of a recent huge dust storm on Mars.

 

[Anonymous]

Another delay: http://spaceflightnow.com/mars/merb/status.html

The launch of the MER-B Mars Exploration Rover "Opportunity" aboard a Boeing Delta 2 rocket has been postponed an additional 24 hours. The delay is due to the failure of a battery cell associated with a component of the launch vehicle's flight termination system. The battery must be removed and replaced.

Maybe they can't afford Duracell anymore?

I remember the days when NASA used to think nothing of stuffing their launches with plutonium powered nuclear power packs!

Back in the days when Superman patrolled the skys above Metropolis and Batman prowled the nights of Gotham City!

 

[Anome]

I remember the days when NASA used to think nothing of stuffing their launches with plutonium powered nuclear power packs!

Back in the days when Superman patrolled the skys above Metropolis and Batman prowled the nights of Gotham City!

I think you mean: "When Spiderman swung through the streets of Manhattan, and the Hulk wandered the deserts, helping the innocent."

The whole nuclear thing was more Marvel than DC.

It's getting so that you can't even put three kilos of plutonium on the top of a giant firecracker anymore. Who else remembers the panic over Cassini? Everyone was scared to death of it, despite the fact that there was practically no threat of it blowing up. I even remember amazingly bad fiction on the net about how the end of the world came when Cassini broke up during the slingshot around Earth on its second pass.

 

[wembley8]

"despite the fact that there was practically no threat of it blowing up."

Maybe so, but a quick cost-benefit analysis by the man in the street is going to tell him that the risk of a few kilos being sloshed around does not justify making a few scientists happy.

Right, I'll get back to my doomsday virus lab - but don't worry, there's hardly any chance of it getting loose, unless someone uses metric instead of imperial units, or leaves the door open...

 

[Timble2]

Now the weather turns nasty....

Perhaps they play tennis on Mars, the weather's taken a turn for the worst, but at least it's not just as Mars Explorer arrives:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3051548.stm

Dust storm rages on Mars

By Dr David Whitehouse
BBC News Online science editor


A huge dust storm is raging over a third of Mars, obscuring many surface features. Experts hope it will subside by 27 August when Mars will be at its brightest and closer to Earth than it has ever been in recorded history.

The dust storm between 4-6 July
The dust storm began in the Hellas basin, one of the lowest regions of Mars, and a frequent breeding ground for such events.

Since then, it has expanded with winds carrying dust into the thin atmosphere for several thousand kilometres.

Dust storms occur during most Martian southern hemisphere summers, because at that time of year sunlight is strong enough to heat the ground and alter atmospheric circulation. ............

............At the end of August, Mars and Earth will be a mere 55,760,000 kilometres apart. They have not been so close in nearly 60,000 years.

The Red Planet will appear especially large in diameter, so it will be relatively easy to make out surface features with a large telescope. Also, Mars will appear exceptionally bright, and its orange colour will be very conspicuous.

Perhaps there's something They don't want us to see.

 

[rynner2]

Mars rover finally takes off

The US space agency (Nasa) has finally succeeded in getting its second Mars Exploration Rover up and away on its six-month journey to the Red Planet.

Spirit also left on a Delta II
The Opportunity vehicle took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida at 2318 local time (0318 GMT).

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3048604.stm

Up, up and away (at last!)

 

[rynner2]

Meanwhile, a few million kilometres further on...

The Beagle 2 lander has passed its first routine "health check" on the journey to Mars.

Engineers made contact with the module at the weekend to test various systems as it hurtled towards the Red Planet onboard Mars Express.

It appears to be in good shape for the 400-million-kilometre journey.

"Everything we checked out has worked as predicted," Beagle team leader Professor Colin Pillinger told BBC News Online.

"We had full contact from Earth through Mars Express to Beagle.

"All the pieces are in place and they allow the contact we need to run the mission."

Power limit

Ground controllers at the European Space Agency's operations centre in Darmstadt, Germany, went through a series of detailed checks on Beagle 2.

Click here to see where the various space craft are located on the route to Mars
They tested its hardware, uploaded software and switched certain components on and off.

It is a routine part of any space mission and is needed to ensure the lander has survived the massive shaking it is put through at launch.

Professor Pillinger, of the Open University in Milton Keynes, UK, said temperatures on Beagle 2 were a degree higher than expected but this was "only a trivial amount".

The tests on Beagle 2 are the latest in a series of checks on the Mars Express payload during the first month of its voyage.

Last week, engineers found the orbiter was down to 70% power due to a faulty connection between the craft's solar wings and a unit that distributes the electricity generated by the arrays.

The power shortage is expected to have no impact on the state of the space craft or the mission objectives.

However, it may mean changes to how the various instruments on Mars Express are deployed once it arrives at the planet.

Long cruise

Mars Express will now undergo a long interplanetary cruise. Its instruments will be switched off and the space craft will go into hibernation mode.

During this time, ground controllers will make daily contact with the probe to check all is well.

Mars Express has travelled about 10 million kilometres since it was launched on 2 June.

The European probe is currently at the head of a fleet of three space craft heading to Mars.

Just behind it is the US space agency's Spirit rover; and behind that is Nozomi, a Japanese satellite that will go into orbit around Mars.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3050848.stm

 

[rynner2]

Opportunity sees Mars as it navigates through space

NASA's Opportunity spacecraft, the second of twin Mars Exploration Rovers, has successfully reduced its spin rate as planned and switched to celestial navigation using a star scanner.

Prior to today's maneuver, Opportunity was spinning 12.13 rotations per minute. Onboard thrusters were used to reduce the spin rate to approximately 2 rotations per minute, the designed rate for the cruise to Mars. After the spinning slowed, Opportunity's star scanner found stars that are being used as reference points for spacecraft attitude. One of the bright points in the star scanner's first field of view was Mars.

All systems on the spacecraft are in good health. As of 6 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time July 10, Opportunity will have traveled 6.6 million kilometers (4.1 million miles) since its July 7 launch. The Mars Exploration Rover flight team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., is preparing to command Opportunity's first trajectory-correction maneuver, scheduled for July 18.

Opportunity will arrive at Mars on Jan. 25, 2004, Universal Time (evening of Jan. 24, 2004, Eastern and Pacific times). The rover will examine its landing area in Mars' Meridiani Planum area for geological evidence about the history of water on Mars.

Opportunity's twin, Spirit, also continues in good health on its cruise to Mars. As of 6 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time July 10, it will have traveled 82.6 million kilometers (51.3 million miles) since its June 10 launch.

And a recap on Express/Beagle check-out Partial quote:

the attention of many in the project has been focused a few issues that arose as engineers methodically went through the innards of the probe one-by-one to make sure they were functioning as expected.

The momentary malfunction of the memory unit first appeared last month, but the flight support team soon found a solution. "The (memory unit) issue is largely understood and a software patch will cure it," Schmidt told Spaceflight Now.

Perhaps a more serious problem cropped up as controllers checked out the power production systems aboard Mars Express. The discovery of an interconnection anomaly between the electricity-producing solar arrays and the craft's power conditioning unit was well-publicized after a European Space Agency statement said the issue could cause operations to be reviewed for "certain short periods of the mission."

The consequence of the interconnection problem is believed to reduce the usable power from the solar panels to about 70 percent of the original plan. ESA says this has no impact on the spacecraft during the remaining six months of transit on the way to the Red Planet or during the make-or-break orbital injection maneuver to begin its mission.

Schmidt clarified the potential mission impact Monday in a response to written questions. "If we confirm the 70 percent number, there will hardly be any impact on the science mission due to higher margins and overdesign in the power system. Only during long eclipses (four periods of a few days during the mission) there could be a need to optimize the instrument operations."

It is too early to tell if the power production problem has a possibility of being resolved, Schmidt said. "We have no power problem until Christmas and therefore we take our time to understand the issue."

The most recent series of tests involved the British Beagle 2 lander that will deploy various scientific instruments once on the Martian surface to help look for past life there. All systems reportedly checked out perfectly, and scientists currently have no concerns with the small craft that will bounce to soft landing December 25.

With the initial phases of commissioning completed, the Mars Express team will continue preparations for arrival at the Red Planet over the coming months.

Star calibrations of some Mars Express instruments could come as early as mid-July, ESA said. Other tests will be performed as the probe nears Mars later this year.

"This checkout was a marvelous example of complete cooperation between ESA's Mars Express and the Beagle lander teams," Schmidt said. "Another major milestone has been achieved successfully. What a fantastic feeling!"

 

[KeyserXSoze]

Mars Attacks

http://www.space.com/spacewatch/where_is_mars.html

On Aug. 27, 2003, Mars will be less than 34.65 million miles (55.76 million kilometers) away -- closer to our planet than it’s been in nearly 60,000 years. The view will be stupendous.

Finding the Red Planet: The Roman God of War looms ever nearer, brighter, and more imposing during July as it approaches its historic rendezvous with Earth.

In olden days this would be seen as omen of big tragedy.

:madeyes:

 

[rynner2]

Looking at Mars

Mars will make its closest approach to Earth for almost 60,000 years at the end of August. Dr Robin Catchpole, senior astronomer at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, London, explains how to witness the event.

Every 26 months, the Earth overtakes Mars on the inside track as they both orbit the Sun.

Every 15 to 17 years, this happens when Mars is closest to the Sun.

On 27 August this year they will pass at a distance of 55,760,000 km or 0.3727 AU (1 AU is the distance of the Earth from the Sun), closer than any time during the last 60,000 years.

At its closest, Mars will be 25 seconds of arc in diameter, the size of a tennis ball at a distance of 528 metres.

However, on the scale of the tennis ball, this approach is only 18 centimetres closer than in 1924, although 110 metres closer than in 2001.

Once risen, it will be the brightest object in the sky, appearing orange red. From the latitude of the UK, it will never rise higher than 22 degrees and you will need an unobstructed view to the south to see it.

Mars will appear at its very best from the Southern Hemisphere, where by the middle of the night it will be high in the sky and its brightness and colour will make it very obvious.

To see any surface detail requires a good quality telescope with a lens or mirror diameter of about 10 cm, on a stable mount. If you don't have one - and few people do - try to visit a public observatory or your local astronomical society.

In the UK, National Astronomy Week will mark the close encounter, and many local astronomical societies will organise public star parties.

Desert landscape

Mars, the Roman god of war, has always had a special fascination for us. Indeed, there is even a slight connection as both blood and Mars owe their red colour to iron and oxygen.


What would our ancestors have made of the bright orange "star"?
Although half the diameter and 1/10 the mass of Earth, it is the planet most like our own. When close, through a good telescope, it is possible to see surface markings, polar ice caps and even thin clouds and frost.

We no longer believe in canals and intelligent Martians, as was suggested after the close approach of 1877. But we do think there is a possibility that primitive single celled organisms may have lived, or even still live, below its surface.

Since the 1960s, satellites orbiting, and even probes landing on Mars, have sent back images showing a desert landscape of sand dunes strewn with boulders and rocks and crossed by dry streambeds.


A fleet of spacecraft are currently heading to Mars
It still remains to be seen if these were carved by water and if so, whether it flowed recently or a thousand million years ago.

There are many impact craters on the surface, testifying to the great age and present geological inactivity of the planet.

This was not always the case as Mars is home to the biggest volcano in the Solar System, the now inactive 26-km-high Olympus Mons.

However you watch Mars move through the August sky, imagine a world in many ways familiar and yet very different from our own and know it has not passed quite this close since the Stone Age.

 

[Anonymous]

My partner is one of the boffins working on the Mars Express project. He says that 65% of all spacecraft that go to Mars .... disappear. This is known in the trade apparently as the Great Galactic Ghoul, it eats spacecraft in the vicinity of Mars. A sort of Bermude Triangle in space. Nobody knows what causes this. Any ideas?

 

[Anonymous]

My partner is one of the boffins working on the Mars Express project. He says that 65% of all spacecraft that go to Mars .... disappear. This is known in the trade apparently as the Great Galactic Ghoul, it eats spacecraft in the vicinity of Mars. A sort of Bermude Triangle in space. Nobody knows what causes this. Any ideas?

An obvious explanation might be the relative close vicinity of Mars to the asteroid belt. Earth's pretty far from the asteroid belt, but nonetheless there are large numbers of near-Earth asteroids, many of which were until recently undetected and unknown, and more are still being found. And that's in our immediate neighbourhood -what's in the neighbourhood of Mars must still be an open question. So how likely is it that there are undetected, small bodies in proximity to Mars that are colliding with the 'lost' probes?

 

[Anonymous]

An obvious explanation might be the relative close vicinity of Mars to the asteroid belt.

Very small pieces of matter, not much bigger than a grain of sand, travelling at upwards of 20,000km an hour, would probably do enough damage.

Inter-planetary dust storms?

 

[Anonymous]

This happened in 1969 with Mariner 6, which went into a spin after being hit, but it survived and recovered. There is a large level of bad luck with Mars craft, and for a large numer of reasons, there is no obvious pattern apparently. Which is where the Great Galactic Ghoul joke came from. Mars is effectively considered an unlucky destination for spacecraft. The Japanese mission Nozomi has been messed up by solar flares, the American one had trouble before it even left the launch-pad, and Mars Express has already lost 30% of its power (tho' it's got so much to spare this doesn't really matter apparently) and is having vibration problems. Fingers crossed for all the Mars expeditions at the moment!