UK Govt and ESA Keep Beagle 2 Failure Report Secret

MARSDAILY

ESA: Lessons And Recommendations

Paris (ESA) May 25, 2004
The Mars Express spacecraft, carrying the Beagle 2 lander, was launched on 2 June last year, arriving in the vicinity of Mars in December. The separation of Beagle 2 from Mars Express occurred on 19 December. The satellite continued its mission with its successful insertion into a Mars orbit on 25 December, the day on which Beagle 2 was due to land.

London (UPI) May 24, 2004
The public may never be told why Britain's first Martian probe - Beagle 2 - disappeared last Christmas as it was about to land on Mars.

Investigators have not been able to pinpoint a single failure or shortcoming of the $90 million probe, reporters were told at a London news conference Monday.

However, the British government and the European Space Agency have refused to reveal the detailed findings of an inquiry into the loss of the unmanned spacecraft, the Daily Telegraph reported.

The report has been kept confidential to protect commercial interests and ensure no one was afraid to come forward with evidence, according to the agency.

Professor Colin Pillinger, Britain's chief scientist for the mission, said only four copies of the report had been made and he had not seen any.

Pillinger has said he believed a Martian heat wave and! accompan ying dust storms may have heated the Martian atmosphere making it thinner causing Beagle 2's parachutes and the airbags that were supposed to cushion its fall from being deployed too late or not at all.

All rights reserved. Copyright 2004 by United Press International. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by United Press International. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of by United Press International.

Community
Email This Article
Comment On This Article

Related Links
Beagle2
SpaceDaily
Search SpaceDaily
Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express
Mars News and Information at MarsDaily.com
Lunar Dreams and more

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS
Solar Energy Solutions
Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ...

Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News

MARSDAILY

Spirit Heading To 'Home Plate'

Pasadena CA (JPL) Jan 09, 2006
Last week Spirit completed robotic-arm work on "El Dorado." The rover used all three of its spectrometers plus the microscopic imager for readings over the New Year's weekend.

NUCLEAR SPACE NASA plans to send new robot to Jupiter Los Alamos Hopes To Lead New Era Of Nuclear Space Tranportion With Jovian Mission Boeing Selects Leader for Nuclear Space Systems Program Boeing-Led Team to Study Nuclear-Powered Space Systems	MOON DAILY Armstrong Reflects On A New Visions For Space Exploration Sunny lunar mountain good site for base Lunar Convoys As An Option For A Return To The Moon NASA Planning Steps To Moon, Mars
SPACE TRAVEL Summer Showdown For Space Plan The Bigger Picture GE Acquire $2 Billion In Assets From Boeing Capital One Small Step For A Space Plan	OUTER PLANETS Hubble Fails To Spot Suspected Sedna Moon Life Beneath The Ice In The Outer Solar System? Gravity Rules: The Nature of Planethood Enigma Of Uranus Solved At Last
JOVIAN DREAMS Expert Predicts Global Climate Change On Jupiter As It's Spots Disappear Europa: Living World or Frozen Wasteland? Io's Lava Lakes Like Early Earth? Is Europa Corrosive?	VENUSIAN HEAT
SATURN DAILY Titan's Big Future In Plastics Pandora and Prometheus Near F Ring Seven Years To Saturn A Bit Of Titan On Earth Helps In The Search For Life's Origins	TECH SPACE New Rad-Hard Tech Reduces Weight & Power, Lowers Costs Northrop Grumman Offers Better Compass For Laser Rangefinders Mowing Back Antennas US Army Space and Missile Defense Command Uses SGI Supercomputer For Simulation Center

The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2006 - SpaceDaily.AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA PortalReports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additionalcopyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement