Beagle ... alas

Reports coming in saying it's not responding, that NASA craft are
hearing nothing.

The party's not over yet - there's another window of opportunity coming
up in a few hours, but the fact it's not responding when expected
doesn't bode well.

*sigh*


David
--
per aspera ad astra

David Sander wrote:

Reports coming in saying it's not responding, that NASA craft are
hearing nothing.

The party's not over yet - there's another window of opportunity coming
up in a few hours, but the fact it's not responding when expected
doesn't bode well.

*sigh*

Jeez. Just a few hours, and the probe has already surrendered.

How much of it was made in France?



And how long before its loss is blamed on George Bush?

--
Scott Lowther, Engineer
Remove the obvious (capitalized) anti-spam
gibberish from the reply-to e-mail address

On Thu, 25 Dec 2003 08:31:25 GMT, Scott Lowther
wrote:

Jeez. Just a few hours, and the probe has already surrendered.

How much of it was made in France?

....The only thing I can say about this apparent failure is that I
honestly hope this is a hard slap in the face to Europe as a whole to
wake them up to the fact that "Faster/Better/Cheaper" does not work,
and they need to quit being ****ing cheap and SPEND WHAT'S REQUIRED!

I was *really* hoping Beagle 2 would make it. I really, really was.

OM

--

"No ******* ever won a war by dying for | http://www.io.com/~o_m
his country. He won it by making the other | Sergeant-At-Arms
poor dumb ******* die for his country." | Human O-Ring Society

- General George S. Patton, Jr

"OM" om@our_blessed_lady_mary_of_the_holy_NASA_researc h_facility.org wrote
in message news
On Thu, 25 Dec 2003 08:31:25 GMT, Scott Lowther
wrote:

Jeez. Just a few hours, and the probe has already surrendered.

How much of it was made in France?

...The only thing I can say about this apparent failure is that I
honestly hope this is a hard slap in the face to Europe as a whole to
wake them up to the fact that "Faster/Better/Cheaper" does not work,
and they need to quit being ****ing cheap and SPEND WHAT'S REQUIRED!

More likely the lesson learned will be: "Well, that just goes to show that
it's too expensive to do now. We'll try again much later, when we're not in
office and can't be blamed."
--
If you have had problems with Illinois Student Assistance Commission (ISAC),
please contact shredder at bellsouth dot net. There may be a class-action
lawsuit
in the works.

In article , OM wrote:
On Thu, 25 Dec 2003 08:31:25 GMT, Scott Lowther
wrote:

Jeez. Just a few hours, and the probe has already surrendered.

How much of it was made in France?

...The only thing I can say about this apparent failure is that I
honestly hope this is a hard slap in the face to Europe as a whole to
wake them up to the fact that "Faster/Better/Cheaper" does not work,
and they need to quit being ****ing cheap and SPEND WHAT'S REQUIRED!

I believe the ESA and, indeed, the project team are quite aware the
lander was underbudgeted; remember, this was pretty much a rush job.
Pillinger, IIRC, has gone on record asbeing unwilling to quote the
eventual cost of the lander, simply because it would set a dangerous
precedent if he tries to do it again.

FBC may well be flawed, but it can't conjure money up from nowhere.
Beagle wasn't a major program where the budget got cut; it was a flight
of opportunity where the money got gathered from wherever possible.
Worth nothing the difference...

--
-Andrew Gray

In article ,
OM om@our_blessed_lady_mary_of_the_holy_NASA_researc h_facility.org wrote:

...The only thing I can say about this apparent failure is that I
honestly hope this is a hard slap in the face to Europe as a whole to
wake them up to the fact that "Faster/Better/Cheaper" does not work,
and they need to quit being ****ing cheap and SPEND WHAT'S REQUIRED!

My memory fails me ... but wasn't faster/better/cheaper some
kind of American slogan? Ford? GM? Some crap manufacturer, wasn't
it?

Nick

"Nicholas Fitzpatrick" skrev i meddelandet
...
In article ,
OM om@our_blessed_lady_mary_of_the_holy_NASA_researc h_facility.org wrote:

...The only thing I can say about this apparent failure is that I
honestly hope this is a hard slap in the face to Europe as a whole to
wake them up to the fact that "Faster/Better/Cheaper" does not work,
and they need to quit being ****ing cheap and SPEND WHAT'S REQUIRED!

My memory fails me ... but wasn't faster/better/cheaper some
kind of American slogan? Ford? GM? Some crap manufacturer, wasn't
it?

Some people claim that it is old Chairman Mao that stated "More (or Greater),
Better, Faster, Cheaper" during the Great Leap Forward. Looking in the mirror,
those ideas were ended up big problems for China and has this far been of
varying success for the space community.
However, there is nothing saying that the principle is wrong if implemented
wisely (see rk's post earlier)

--
th

In article , (Nicholas
Fitzpatrick) wrote:

In article ,
OM om@our_blessed_lady_mary_of_the_holy_NASA_researc h_facility.org wrote:

...The only thing I can say about this apparent failure is that I
honestly hope this is a hard slap in the face to Europe as a whole to
wake them up to the fact that "Faster/Better/Cheaper" does not work,
and they need to quit being ****ing cheap and SPEND WHAT'S REQUIRED!

My memory fails me ... but wasn't faster/better/cheaper some
kind of American slogan? Ford? GM? Some crap manufacturer, wasn't
it?

I think it may have been the outfit that built the Space Shuttle, from the
country that couldn't build a spaceplane with a crew escape system and one
of whose Mars mission teams couldn't remember the difference between
English and Metric units.

In that context, I suggest certain folks stop slagging the Europeans,
British and French. It looks really bad, really petty, really classless.

--
"All over, people changing their votes,
along with their overcoats;
if Adolf Hitler flew in today,
they'd send a limousine anyway!" --the clash.
__________________________________________________ _________________
Mike Flugennock, flugennock at sinkers dot org
Mike Flugennock's Mikey'zine, dubya dubya dubya dot sinkers dot org

"Mike Flugennock" wrote in message
...
It looks really bad, really petty, really classless.

In short- it looks *French*.
--
If you have had problems with Illinois Student Assistance Commission (ISAC),
please contact shredder at bellsouth dot net. There may be a class-action
lawsuit
in the works.

...The only thing I can say about this apparent failure is that I
honestly hope this is a hard slap in the face to Europe as a whole to
wake them up to the fact that "Faster/Better/Cheaper" does not work,
and they need to quit being ****ing cheap and SPEND WHAT'S REQUIRED!

I was *really* hoping Beagle 2 would make it. I really, really was.




Everyone was. And it still *might*.

These missions, as I'm sure you know, need to work in clockwork
precision and choreography. Already there has been a hitch.

What can we say? Entropy is nature's way, not order. Firing a little
probe with no propulsion system from another probe, in motion, at a
remote location 11 months away, is a tall order and prone to failure.

Yes, FBC does not work. Spend the proper amount of money on missions
and TEST, TEST, TEST. When you are done testing, then test some more.
Then test a little more, and then test some more for the hell of it.


Waiting for the next contact opportunity,
-joshua