Cross your fingers folks

Beagle 2 *should* touch down on Mars at 0254 GMT.

Anyone still awake is cordially invited to cross everything.

 

Thank **** they didn't call it Corgi2... might have got savaged by an
interstellar bull terrier on the way.

I'll bet someone at Mission Control (wherever that happens to be;
probably a broom cupboard in Cambridge) just won't be able to resist
saying, "Ladies and Gentlemen, the Beagle has landed."

I know I wouldn't.

Ditto.

--

Dave

GS 850 x2 / SE 6a
SbS#6 DIAABTCOD#16 APOSTLE#16? FUB#3
FUB KotL OSOS#12? UKRMMA#19

 

Nigel Eaton wrote

Don't be such a fucking defeatist. That is Best British Engineering
that we are crashing into that poor innocent planet.

When do we get pictures and stuff?

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, steve auvache

<G> Not a defeatist in the slightest, but even the team admit a large
slice of luck is needed. First signal could be received around 06:60
GMT.

****, I hope it makes it.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Nigel Eaton

^^^^^


You see, that's the sort of ****-up that could bollix the whole thing.
06:30, obviously...

 

Nigel Eaton wrote:

How much luck is required by now?
I'll just cross my fingers and hope that the Martian
gravitational field holds up for the next few hours.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Old Fart at Play

*Lots* The bio shield has to separate cleanly. The aerodynamics have to
work, the chutes have to deploy correctly. They need to avoid wind
shear. The airbags have to inflate at *exactly* the right time. The
whole shebang has to *not* hit a sharp rock. The airbags have to absorb
the impact, then separate and roll clear. Then the lander *must* deploy
its solar cells and get power, or <Rolf Harris Mode> it'll be too weak
to make it through the night </RHM>.

And that's just the stuff they're prepared to talk about...

This is hugely cutting edge, the odds are *way* against it.

But, hey, it's Christmas, right?

 

Nigel Eaton wrote

yeah, right

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, steve auvache

**** off Granddad.

Oh, and Happy Xmas too...

 

Nigel Eaton wrote

I raise a glass in your general direction.

 

Aye. I'm not sure if I can stay awake for another hour and a bit, but
I'll cross things.

 

Bad form etc, but can I predict the headline: "The Beagle has
landed"?.

Ta.

 

To a generation of engineers brought up feasting their eyes on Val
Singleton's knockers, such a thing is child's play.

Stickybacked plastic and washingup liquid bottles... to Mars.

--

Dave

GS 850 x2 / SE 6a
SbS#6 DIAABTCOD#16 APOSTLE#16? FUB#3
FUB KotL OSOS#12? UKRMMA#19

 

Which is why it's not working.

 

No contact on the first pass of the orbiting satellite at 06:30ish, so, they are
hoping the next pass at around 22:00 will give them a signal that it has
arrived safely.
Alan.

 

Nigel didn't ask us to cross everything and hope that it arrives safely.
Merely that it should hit the ground

Anyway it is too much to hope for a signal to reach Earth.
This is the silent planet, as Mr. Lewis said.

 

Awww shit.

Mars must be littered with fragments of spacecraft by now.

Either that, or the Martians are enjoying their Christmas game of "Earth
Invaders" and reckon they've got a high score.

 

I'm sure he's a very clever chap, but it's a bit disconcerting to see a
scientist that looks and sounds like a Wurzel.

--

Dave

GS 850 x2 / SE 6a
SbS#6 DIAABTCOD#16 APOSTLE#16? FUB#3
FUB KotL OSOS#12? UKRMMA#19

 

Naah. He be proper Mad Scientist material, he be. Leave his
muttonchops alone.

 

First thing I checked yesterday, just after the champagine.

Bugger. :-/