-Caveat Lector- September 25 1999 BRITAIN http://www.the-times.co.uk/news/pages/Saturday-Times/timnwsnws01021.html?999 Vanishing Mars craft mystery BY NIGEL HAWKES, SCIENCE EDITOR IS Mars the Bermuda Triangle of the solar system? The disappearance of the £75 million Mars Climate Orbiter has reinforced the red planet's reputation as a spacecraft gobbler. Billions of pounds-worth of hardware bound for Mars has either lost contact with Earth, crashed, disappeared or failed to get off the launch pad. The last big US failure, the $980 million Mars Observer, which went silent just three days from the planet in 1993, caused such anguish that the US space agency Nasa changed its whole philosophy. Out went the old-fashioned, high-cost spacecraft. In came the "cheaper, better, faster" philosophy of the head of Nasa, Dan Goldin. Now one of his new-style 'cheapos' has gone exactly the same way. Counting how much has been lost is impossible. Many of the failures came from the Soviet Union at a time when nobody, not even them, knew what they were costing. But the last three - Mars Observer and Mars Climate Orbiter from the US, and Mars 96 from Russia - cost almost £900 million and they are only three of 18 documented failures. The unhappiest man yesterday was Fred Taylor, of Oxford University, who developed the radiometer on Mars Climate Orbiter which was intended to give a detailed picture of Martian weather. The instrument originally flew on Mars Observer, and was also lost. Nobody yet knows what scuppered Mars Climate Orbiter, but it appears to have approached the planet too close and burned up in the atmosphere, broken apart, or crashed. DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector. ======================================================================== Archives Available at: http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ ======================================================================== To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email: SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Om
