WHAT happened to the UK鈥檚 Beagle 2 Mars probe on Christmas Day 2003 is once more unclear.
In December 2008, engineers led by Madhat Abdel-Jawad at the University of Queensland thought they had cracked it when their simulations showed Beagle 2鈥檚 gyroscopic spin was too fast for it to remain stable 鈥� so it would have tumbled and burned up in the Martian atmosphere (New 杏吧原创, 20 December 2008, p 24).
The Beagle 2 team is far from convinced. Arthur Smith of Fluid Gravity Engineering in Emsworth, Hampshire, UK, says the Australian team failed to simulate atmospheric entry in a gravity field, or allow for Beagle 2鈥檚 offset centre of gravity, meaning the simulations were flawed. With the parameters set correctly, Smith鈥檚 simulations show that Beagle 2 did not tumble.
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Smith and colleagues at the Open University and Aerospace firm in the UK plan to explain their analysis in a forthcoming research paper.
Abdel-Jawad and his colleagues are looking forward to reading it. 鈥淎ll our assumptions were valid over the time of flight we analysed,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e would be delighted to accept the findings of the Beagle team鈥檚 new study if it were found to be valid after we review their analysis.鈥�
