[medscribe]

Is this a good time to tell the Brits "you get what you pay for?"

[Orbital Velocity]

Obviously this is an embarassement to the Europeans, as their failure has been highly publicized.

[FreedomCalls]

And to remind them that their £140 million is money down the drain with absolutely nothing to show for it, whereas our $820 million will actually accomplish something.

[Clara Lou]

I'd go with thumper's mom's advice: If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. [RE your comment: Obviously, they've figured that out all by themselves.]

[MarkeyD]

The problem is that throwing more money at a problem doesn't always solve it. e.g. Welfare

[seowulf]

They knew what their budget was. They knew what the mission was. The first principle of engineering is to make sure it works. If they needed to scale back the mission to ensure it succeeded within the given budget, then scale it back. If the mission is more important, pony up the dough.

My favorite sign at work is "A. Good B. Fast C. Cheap - Pick any two!"

[longtermmemmory]

Could be the Brits saying they need as much money as the Americans to avoid future embarassment.

[Turbo Pig]

The Brits accomplished a big feat by simpley hitting Mars. I say hitting vs land on, becasue it looks like Beagle 2 most liekly went splat. Never the less, distance and potential for failure even before reaching mars orbit are astronomical, let allow landing.