[meteorite-list] Beagle 2 Update - December 31, 2003

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:18:06 2004
Message-ID: <200312312217.OAA01662_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.beagle2.com/news/index.htm


Update from this morning's attempt by Odyssey to detect Beagle 2
31-Dec-03 16:05 GMT
                               
Summary

The latest attempt to communicate with Beagle 2 by NASA's Mars Odyssey
orbiter was unsuccessful.

Full story

A window of opportunity for contacting Beagle 2 was open this morning
and whilst Odyssey was trying to establish contact with the lander,
the Deep Space Network of telescopes back on Earth were busy involved
in communication links for NASA's Mars Exploration Rover and Stardust
projects, hence the delay in receiving any information back about
today's attempt to contact Beagle 2.

Scientists took the opportunity this morning to upload another command
to Beagle 2 to try to reset its internal clock. This time however the
instructions were embedded in the "hail" command. This is designed to
initiate the contact sequence with Beagle 2 and doesn't require a
response from the lander to confirm the data have been received. No
initial result was achieved during this pass of Odyssey but it is hoped
that the command may bring success in a future communication slot.

The next opportunity for retrieval of a signal from Beagle 2 will be
with Mars Express in the New Year, the date and time of which are to
be confirmed.

The next Beagle 2 press briefing is scheduled to take place at the
Media Centre in Camden on Sunday 4th January. Details will be
confirmed on the websites at a later date.
Received on Wed 31 Dec 2003 05:17:53 PM PST