It's one thing to build it, it is another to get it successfully to Mars. Deep Space is difficult exploration territory, and more than half of Mars-bound spacecraft have failed. Why? It is a long way away. The quality of a spacecraft must be very very high. The builders of the spacecraft must be (1) very experienced and very good, (2) very very good, (3) very very experienced, or, perhaps, (4) very very lucky.
Mars Polar Lander was one that was faster, better and cheaper, and made quickly by a small team. Now, the next attempt at soft landing is at least 10 years from the MPL failure. What's the lesson here? Anyway, good luck to the Mars Express team, and especially the Beagle II team. All ground truth on the composition of the atmosphere is lost (the data can't be found), and Beagle II is our chance to get more. == You are subscribed to the Europa Icepick mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Project information and list (un)subscribe info: http://klx.com/europa/
