In article ,
Jonathan Silverlight wrote:
Nothing much at the moment. It's still very difficult to operate for any
length of time on the surface -- keeping the electronics cold is the
biggest problem -- and that severely drives up the cost of doing anything
there, which makes it an unattractive target.

Given that you don't need parachutes or airbags, would it be cost
effective to drop a whole pack of Beagles, at intervals of about three
weeks?

I think it would be difficult to make that work well. With each one,
you're starting from scratch with new hardware and a new location. And
something simple like Beagle will have a surface life measured in minutes;
if you want even a few days, the design gets much harder.
--
MOST launched 30 June; science observations running | Henry Spencer
since Oct; first surprises seen; papers pending. |