"The Plankmeister" wrote ...

"Alex R. Blackwell" wrote in message
...
Beagle 2: A Fortunate Failure
by Jeffrey F. Bell
Honolulu - January 13, 2004
http://www.spacedaily.com/news/beagle2-04a.html

And that guy is supposed to be a professor? Of what? Americanism? He may as
well have just said "Only America knows how to do anything with
technology... All you other countries just go back to building mud huts."
What a sarcastic ass.

Well we all know that a mission that fails that 1/4 the cost of a mission that succeeds
is bad. But is a mission with a 50% chance of success at 1/4 the cost of a mission
that succeeds bad?

So the coin flipped the wrong way this time - but I wonder just how low can you
push a spacecraft's reliability and excuse it on the basis that it's real cheap.