News from Spaaacceeeee

Beagle 2 hitched a ride to Mars back in 2002/2003 and when she jumped ship and took her final dive she went silent...and was never heard from again. It was assumed the land crashed and was destroyed, perhaps her chutes didn't open or the ball she was 'bouncing' in didn't work correctly.

Thus it remained.

But this past weekend NASA found the unlucky intersolar hound. It would appears as if she did land perfectly as planned, deploying chutes, inflating the ball-like tube to allow her to bounce. But when she set out to deploy her solar panels, only 3 deployed. The fourth remained shut. She needed all four to harvest enough power to phone home.

So she sits. A tiny probe on a large planet. Listening, but unable to hear and unable to speak. 

Someone needs to go give that dark a bone! Maybe they can send the rover over there to help out. Might take awhile, but why not?