Posted on 01/04/2004 10:08:45 AM PST by Orbital Velocity
The Spirit rover probe’s success in landing on Mars so soon after Beagle 2’s ominous silence may not be entirely surprising when the missions are compared.
The disparity in the price tags alone is enough to raise a few eyebrows.
The Americans have splashed out 820 million (£460 million) on their Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission, which includes a sister rover to Spirit, Opportunity.
But the cash-strapped Brits, who unlike Nasa cannot throw huge amounts of taxpayers’ money at space projects, spent a paltry £140 million on the Mars Express package overall.
While Spirit itself cost around 400 million (£220 million), Beagle 2 is estimated to have been a snip at about £45 million.
And it is not hard to see how the extra cash might have been spent.
Engineering-wise, Spirit is a far more complex animal than Beagle 2, which was designed to carry out experiments at one spot.
In contrast the six-wheeled American vehicle, which is about the size of a golf cart, is free to roam, observing its surroundings through a pair of cameras perched on the end of a long “neck”.
As well as stereoscopic vision, the rover has an extendable arm fitted with tools for grinding out and examining rock samples.
The rovers have “brains” that allow them to make some of their own decisions when, for instance, assessing hazards in their path. They are also able to carry out their own “health checks”.
Within a shell-like body no bigger than a motorcycle wheel, Beagle 2 carries an incredible array of instruments, including an on-board laboratory for analysing samples, a rock drill and a burrowing mole.
But while Nasa’s spacecraft are crammed with back-up systems, Beagle 2, the brainchild of Professor Colin Pillinger, has no built-in redundancy.
Unlike Beagle 2, Spirit is not designed to look for direct signs of life. Instead, it will search for the most likely places where life may have existed in the past.
The projects also differ in background and underlying general spirit.
The MER mission is part of a grand long-term Nasa strategy which will later involve collecting samples and bringing them back to Earth.
Spirit and Opportunity, due to arrive on Mars on January 24, are both highly risky missions and hugely important to Nasa’s reputation and future.
In contrast the Beagle 2 project was put together on a shoestring by clever and inventive engineers faced with the seemingly impossible task of building a lander capable of searching for life on Mars that weighed less than 200lb.
They had to do this at a fraction of the cost of Nasa space missions, and in record time.
The Government and European Space Agency (ESA) are underwriting at least some of the cost, but fundraisers had to go cap in hand to potential sponsors and the business of negotiating deals has been continuing.
More unusual ways to pay for the project also had to be found.
Part of the campaign involved “Brit-pop” musicians Blur, two of whom are keen amateur astronomers. Bass guitarist Alex James and drummer David Rowntree attended exhibitions to help attract sponsors, and composed Beagle 2’s nine-note call-sign tune.
Maverick artist Damien Hirst produced a “spot painting” to be carried to Mars and used by scientists to calibrate Beagle 2’s instruments.
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Yeah, when we tried to do it cheap, we lost two landers also. Cheap buys you absolutely nothing.
Having said that, the tone of this article certainly smacks of defensiveness and a smattering of envy. There's a very good reason why Joe Schmo can't fly his converted pickup truck to the Moon or Mars to catch the view whenever he feels like it - its hard work to get there and to design and build a suitable craft for the job. Heck, even NASA and the JPL have had their share of failure in this endeavor - its an occupational hazard.
In terms of GNP and national wealth, the countries of the European Union (which Britain is a part) certainly have the wherewithal to come together and do great things in space. Lack of vision, not of money, must certainly be examined as the root cause for Beagle 2's failure.
If the views in this article truly represent the thinking of the British government, then my advice to them is to stop whining and start uniting, organizing, and building.
Their orbiter is still in orbit, and will return valuable data, so it's not a total loss. In addition, there may be some way to route communications from the 2 NASA rovers through their orbiter to increase the overall bandwidth back to Earth.
Who's leading the rah rah cheers? Sounds like you are. I'll revise my statement then and concentrate on the landers only.
And to remind them that their£140 million£45 million for Beagle is money down the drain with absolutely nothing to show for it, whereas our$820 million$400 million for Spirit will actually accomplish something.
I don't think £45 million is pocket change and it is clearly £45 million totally wasted for the simple want of a fully tested airbag.
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