Something to learn from Mars Express
- Original Message - From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, November 22, 2002 7:59 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Driving force behind Mars Express The Ferrari Red Paint will not be the only thing breaking all speed records when it hurtles towards the Red Planet on-board the Mars Express spacecraft in 2003. The spacecraft itself has already broken some speed records of its own. Mars Express is the fastest-built satellite of its type in the history of space engineering.Read more at:http://sci.esa.int/content/news/index.cfm?aid=9cid=32oid=30991
Re: Something to learn from Mars Express
Run the data loss on theMartian atmosphere composition by me again. When did this happen? P At 08:26 22/11/2002 -0800, you wrote: 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/ Paul Lavin +44 (0) 77 7588 6420 mobile +44 (0) 20 7291 0991 London office +44 (0) 15 8246 2720 home office +44 (0) 15 8246 2536 home fax == You are subscribed to the Europa Icepick mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Project information and list (un)subscribe info: http://klx.com/europa/
Re: Something to learn from Mars Express
Faster, Better, Cheaper. Pick any two. Results may vary. Joe Latrell 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/ == You are subscribed to the Europa Icepick mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Project information and list (un)subscribe info: http://klx.com/europa/
Re: Something to learn from Mars Express
Paul Lavin wrote: Run the data loss on the Martian atmosphere composition by me again. When did this happen? P Thank you for asking! The Viking lander gas chromatography-mass spectrometer (GCMS) data is not available anywhere. What is taken as gospel for the composition at the surface is the paper The composition of the atmosphere at the surface of Mars, Owen, T. et al; JGR vol 82 1977, p. 4635-4639. The authors were PI's for the Viking I and II GCMS experiments. There is an oft-quoted table of composition - it is missing any error bounds and the numbers don't add up to 100%. Alarm bells should ring! My interest is the amount of molecular oxygen since I did a study for NIAC on extracting this commodity (see http://www.niac.usra.edu under Funded Studies and my name). The number in the JGR paper for oxygen seems to come from Earth-based measurements in 1972, not from Viking as might be inferred from this paper (one must parse the words in this paper like a Clinton speech). In fact, composition will vary following the alternate loss and gain of CO2 to/from the Poles. Back to the lost data. The GCMS data are not archived at the NSSDC (http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/) where they belong, or at the Planetary Data System (PDS, http://pds.jpl.nasa.gov/) where they also belong. I have had extensive contact with the Atmospheres Node of the PDS, but it has been difficult to raise any interest or concern there. I have confirmed (doubly confirmed, even) that the NSSDC does not have it anywhere such as in a cellar. I have corresponded with Prof. Biemann whose name is listed on the appropriate (but blank) page on the NSSDC website. He confirms that he does not have the data. There is a hardcopy! On a two foot high pile of green decaying computer paper, in octal format. I basically ran out of energy trying to get this data out of the owner's attic and into digital form, but maybe next year. Just yesterday I found out that Mariner 9 photos of Mars are also not available, this from a researcher who wants to compare early 1970's photos with current ones. I have also heard that Viking Orbiter radio occultation data are lost. This last seems astounding since no one could ever suggest that this information was without value. No one seems to take ownership of these problems. The PDS says it does not have funds to recover this data. They do not seem to feel at all guilty about their poor husbandry of this information. As you may note, I have strong feelings on this issue. Chris At 08:26 22/11/2002 -0800, you wrote: 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/
