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To: BenLurkin

Nope. That was a probe that was supposed to return material from Solar ejecta back on earth, but crash-landed in the desert instead when airplanes failed to snag its parachute.


24 posted on 05/09/2005 7:33:31 PM PDT by SlowBoat407 (I'm not nearklym drunk enough tom deal with it. - FReeper Wormwood, 4/18/05)
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To: SlowBoat407

The guy next to the crashed lander in the far right shot is a dead giveaway. Either that or it's Armstrong on Mars.


25 posted on 05/09/2005 7:34:52 PM PDT by SlowBoat407 (I'm not nearklym drunk enough tom deal with it. - FReeper Wormwood, 4/18/05)
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To: SlowBoat407
Nope. That was a probe that was supposed to return material from Solar ejecta back on earth, but crash-landed in the desert instead when airplanes failed to snag its parachute.

Not entirely correct. The parachute never deployed because the accelerometer never gave the indication that the craft was slowing down in the atmosphere. This was because it was mounted backwards! A horrible QA failure.

Space technologies must test every aspect of operations. This is just another example. We also almost lost all information from the Huygen's space probe (ESA's probe that was hitched on Cassini that is orbit around Saturn) because of a testing issue (due to the Italian space agency). With multiple space agencies with different requirements and ethics, it is even more important to test new spacecraft and probes in all possible respects than ever before.

30 posted on 05/09/2005 7:45:25 PM PDT by burzum
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To: SlowBoat407

Are you sure?


33 posted on 05/09/2005 7:52:12 PM PDT by BenLurkin (O beautiful for patriot dream - that sees beyond the years)
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