First contact with the UK鈥檚 Beagle 2 Mars lander, which set off for the Red Planet on 2 June, has been delayed by a week. The postponement is required to allow engineers time to decipher an unexpected message from an instrument on Beagle鈥檚 mother ship, Mars Express.
Engineers had planned to boot-up and test Beagle 2鈥檚 on-board computer systems on Friday. This would show how well the lander鈥檚 electronics survived the rough and tumble of lift-off.
But a message received from a scientific instrument aboard Mars Express has put the checkout on hold, Mars Express project manager Rudy Schmidt told 快猫短视频 快猫短视频.
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Mission controllers at the European Space Agency鈥檚 Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt, Germany, sent activation commands to the instrument earlier this week but received a reply that they were not anticipating. They now want to consult with the manufacturer of the instrument before pressing on with its configuration.
Slow and careful
Schmidt says this is relatively routine and no cause for concern. 鈥淲e always take things very carefully,鈥� he told 快猫短视频. 鈥淲hen we see something we do not immediately understand we ask the supplier of the box for an explanation 鈥� then we know how to proceed.鈥�
Contacting the makers of the instrument, which Schmidt did not name, has been complicated by public holidays in Germany.
Going ahead with the activation of Beagle 2 before understanding the message from the Mars Express instrument could risk the checkout being interrupted. 鈥淏eagle2 has a very funny way of transporting the data and we have to be absolutely sure that everything works from beginning to end,鈥� says Schmidt.
Expect the unexpected
Max Meerman, an engineer at UK spacecraft manufacturer Surrey Satellites, says it is not unusual to receive a puzzling message from a new spacecraft early in its mission, even if you have fully tested all the communication procedures on the ground beforehand.
鈥淲hen you launch there is always something different,鈥� he told 快猫短视频. 鈥淚nstruments are built, integrated into bigger units, put into the satellite by someone and then operated by a whole different group of people.鈥� The large number of people involved with Mars Express would make the situation especially complicated, he adds.
The spacecraft is not due to arrive at Mars until December, notes Meerman, which explains ESOC鈥檚 slow approach. 鈥淏ecause they have so much time, they鈥檙e going to be very careful if anything is not correct.鈥�
Mars Express and Beagle 2 should separate on 19 December, with Mars Express entering orbit and the lander heading down for a 25 December touchdown. Together, the spacecraft aim to conduct a top-to-bottom survey of Mars to determine whether the planet was once awash with water and, perhaps, life.