Is beagle 2 still alive?

I've read on a few sites that the beagle 2 is really still working and they are only faking the crash because they found something that the public shouldn't know about. I have looked for evidence of both claims and came across an iteresting statement from a news article on CNN today.

Mars mission criticized by spending watchdog

Mission controllers now believe it's likely that the lander crash-landed on the Red Planet on Christmas Day, probably because the atmosphere was less dense than expected.

Now, how could they not know how dense the atmosphere is? Isn't this what scientist are supposed to know? I also saw a couple of other 'claims' of photo's of green vegitation transmitted on the beagle's way to the surface, but I can't find them again..

Don't be rediculous. Everyone associated with this project practically died with disapointment when no signal was received (a sure sign of instant failure).

just a question,l how can the rover "be alive" ? Its a machine, it has no soul or heart or brain. Its remote controlled, so your statement is practicaly useless.

catfish--- well "alive" means anything you want it to mean...

its all about how you put it in a sentance...

anyway... it is kinda alive because the rover on mars uses its cameras to look at the "roads" and then its computer decides what "road" is the safest to travel...

its very smart...

I don't think they would have had time to discover anything with the Beagle 2 probe. It's not like they land and can start discovering things the second after. They'd do all sorts of system checks and the like first.

They wouldn't have known anything yet at the time. Hope for the probe was pretty small after it was supposed to have landed and sent a signal. NASA spent about a week or so checking out the systems on there rovers before they even started moving. I'm sure the Beagle would have gone through something similar (i know it's stationary though).

It's worth noting that the Mars rovers also had problems with the atmosphere. They had to adjust the timing of the second rover's parachute and rocket based on the info the first one sent back.

Sadly, the Beagle had very little tolerance for variations and it probably smashed into the ground.

Also, the scientists noticed that when the beagle was released, some other object was seen floating off, which may mean the beagle fell apart before it ever reached mars.

It was under-funded and under engineered, imho.


[Edited on 4-4-2004 by Zzub]

Its not smart, its programmed to take the easiest route to its destination. Its not like an "AI" where it is practicaly a human with a robots body (or so its like in Sci fi movies)

The reason I asked this question is because someone was telling me that they pulled the plug on the mission because while it was on its way to landing, the camera's found green vegetation. I guess since no one mentioned this, it must be false information.

Originally posted by godservant
The reason I asked this question is because someone was telling me that they pulled the plug on the mission because while it was on its way to landing, the camera's found green vegetation. I guess since no one mentioned this, it must be false information.

it is definitely false, it was due to send back a signal until after it had landed (unlike NASA' 2 rovers - which is how we know about the unexpected atmosphere density.)

Originally posted by godservant

Now, how could they not know how dense the atmosphere is? Isn't this what scientist are supposed to know?

We don't really know how dense our own atmosphere is going to be day to day. If we could do that, weather prediction into the distant future would be a piece of cake. They were predicting the weather on Mars years in advance. It just so happened it may have hit a low front, and took a nose dive.

Maybe aliens destroyed it so that we wouldn't find anything

but why would aliens destroy a little thing like the beagle???

Like, I mean, NASA has sent robots in the past to visit mars. Why would aliens all of a sudden go rampant on the beagle?