In article , Dale Pontius wrote:

What's behind are the highest risk portions of the mission. Sure, Mars
carries a 66% failure rate. But all of those failures were prior to
landing.

Mars 3, first sucessful softlander on Mars... for twenty seconds.
Granted, it was probably *due* to the landing, but it landed, worked,
died quickly.

We also don't know if Beagle 2 landed sucessully or not; there's, at a
guess, maybe a 20-30% chance it landed and just broke thereafter.

So far, everything that's made contact after landing has done
an exemplary job and exceeded expectations. (as long as you don't expect
to see life waving to you)

cf/ Mars 3, above...

--
-Andrew Gray