And search for Life on Mars continues...

"From this point, the tension really starts to grow,"

The Mars Express orbiter is meant to send back overhead pictures of the planet's surface and scan for underground water with a powerful radar, as well as relaying information from the 67-kilogram (143-pound) Beagle 2, which it released toward Mars on Friday.

Mars Express was some 200,000 kilometers (124,300 miles) from Mars mid-Wednesday and on course for the orbit maneuver, which was to be performed some 400 kilometers (250 miles) above the surface, mission control said.

While Beagle 2 is scheduled to touch down December 25 at 0245 GMT (December 24 at 9:45 p.m. EST), it will be several hours before controllers get a chance to confirm its landing.

Mars Express won't be in place to pick up the signal until January 3, so the first chance of contact will be when NASA's Mars Odyssey passes overhead at around 0515 GMT (12:15 a.m. EST) December 25. Mission managers plan to hold a press conference at 0830 GMT (2:30 a.m. EST).

Another Mar explorer? How many more do we need to confirm/deny life exists there, man?

 

Update

 

Shots to Mars are not easy. Because it has no coeans the land mass of Mars equals the Earth's, it is a dried up world with alot of area to search.
Any indication of life there will be minimal and rare...if it is there.

The Beagle has a device called a Mole that will dig into the ground. The problem: indication of life or former life may not be in that landing spot.

 

Richard C. Hoagland thinks that there's a good chance 'the secret' could get out. There's real competition, between the Europeans and the Americans. And the Europeans are currently not too fond of America, so they might not play along. If they find something, if they get a good picture of the Face or the Pyramids, or find some underground cities when they're looking for underground water, they might make it public, just as sort of a "pluck yew" to NASA.

We might get Martians for Christmas.

 

yeah... see how it goes

 

And hey, they might even find your family, JM22.

 

I personally don't see why NASA or ESA does not concentrate on the poles seeing as how they are wet areas. There was a polar lander but I have not heard anything about it. Although, I have not looked up info on it either.

 

The Polar Lander crashed.

 

They are going to end up covering as much ground as they possibly can. As far as the Europeans, I wouldn't worry about them. Just because they say they are planning on launching before us doesn't mean that they will be right on schedule. You have to take in account weather conditions which affect the launch. Besides, I think we will fare better because we are much more experienced in space exploration and will do a much better job.

 

It's going to be pretty frustrating if these landers don't make it. I really hope that tomorrow I wake up and find out they made it.

 

Yeah, were fantastic. One of our Mars probes crashed because it got metric measurments confused with "regular" measurments.

This isnt a competition. And Europe has the cooler mission, they are actually landing.

 

It's a little suspicious that so many Mars missions fail.

 

maybe the martians are afraid we'll take their women away and repopulate our dying planet....

 

I think you have thta backwards, they're afraid we'll force them to take our women to repopulate their dying planet.

 

you don't know how funny i find that....

 

Well, Beagle 2 so far has failed to signal it's landing.. I hope it made it.

 

As i said, getting to Mars, or for that matter any place in the solar system with a probe, is a big pain in the ass.

There is a project NASA has in the works called ANTS...Autnomous Nano Technology Swarm, which I posted about in the space science thread awhile back.

Basically it would be a swarm of small probes weighing in at 2.2 lbs(1 kilogram) that would be used to explore the asteroid belt. A few dozen or perhaps a hundred of them would stand off a little and coordinate the activities of dozens or hundreds of others. EAch probe would act individually eyt would exchange information and act a single large probe.

To get out there they would use a solar sail or an M2P2 device to ride the solar wind outward. They would be cheap since they could be massed produced on an assembly line, and you could lose some of them and still carry out the mission.

Worries of losing the mission would become nil. Japan recently had to give up on a Mars probe of their own which they lost.

 

Sometimes I think NASA needs to look for life here on Earth instead of on other planets.

 

Uh Oh, the Fate of the Lander is Unknown, and I hope it makes it

The NEXT attemt to contact the lander is at 5:45 p.m. EST... stay tuned, hope for a good news!

Mission managers said a failure to detect a signal tonight, early in the morning Mars time, would force them to begin to confront the prospect that Beagle-2 did not survive.

But for the European Space Agency's Esoc mission control center in Darmstadt, Germany, the word that Mars Express' main engine burn successfully put the satellite into orbit around Mars brought clear relief.

"This is the most extraordinary Christmas present I have ever had," European Space Agency Director-General Jean-Jacques Dordain said. "Now that we have received signals from Mars Express telling us it is in orbit, there is no more reason for doubts and fears. As for Beagle-2, we still have some time."

 

Well, DarthVal, NASA stands for Space, so outter space is where it must research.

There are Earth research centers, I am pretty sure... If not, make a NELMR - National Earth Life Mystery Research.

Or re-open the X-files, FBI & Agent Mulder ... that's ALL we NEED!

 

It would suck big time if it is lost, but this is not a rare occurance.

Something like 60 or so probes have been sent to Mars and approx two thirds of them have failed for one reason or another.

Among conspiracy folks this means something doesn't want us there, yet right around 20 probes have been successfull, they usually try to forget those when arguing for dark powers on Mars.

 

Well, hope is NOT all lost.

Professor Colin Pillinger told a press conference Thursday morning the lack of signal does not necessarily mean failure and offered five possible scenarios:

? The spacecraft landed in the wrong place

? The craft's transmitting antenna landed disoriented and cannot fully open

? There is a communications mis-match between NASA's orbiting Mars Global Surveyor and Beagle 2

? A failure during entry descent damaged the spacecraft

We'll know more by 5:45.

 

Again, there is NO news yet on the survival of the lander called Beagle 2.

I hope we will hear a signal by Midnight.

But here are some sites to follow:

Mars Express

Beagle 2

Space.com

NASA site

MSNBC

 

No success

 

"As i said, getting to Mars, or for that matter any place in the solar system with a probe, is a big pain in the ass."

Yeah, but what percentage of Mars probes are lost compared to other space probes, like ones to the moon or venus or the outer planets?