At 23:00 Pacific, Tues 1999-12-07, Richard Hoagland will be on the Art Bell show. To find a radio station, look on http://www.artbell.com

The record for NASA probes to Mars this decade is, I think, only 2 for 7. And the Russians similar "bad luck." Are these accidents or shoot downs, or are most really successful, but NASA doesn't want us to know what has been and will be actually found? Richard will let you know what he thinks -- always entertaining and INFORMATIVE. http://www.enterprisemission.com for his site, including bonafides.

-- A (A@AisA.com), December 08, 1999

Answers

Hoagland worked for years with Cronkite covering NASA during the period of the first Mars shots. They were successful then, for the simple missions then. But glitches and backups were then done professionally. He says with the massive increase in computing power and learning that the recent missions should be OK. At least, if a real accident, the publicly stated actions to recover/discover are totally unprofessional. So, he says bluntly about the Polar Lander "fiasco": "THE FIX IS IN"

-- A (A@AisA.com), December 08, 1999.

does anyone know what ever happened to the Japanese mars probe that was launched last year? they launched it about six months early before the window to merge with Mars orbit and had it parked in Earth Orbit. I haven't heard or seen a thing about it since.

-- Nikoli Krushev (doomsday@y2000.com), December 08, 1999.

Nikoli: Hoagland said that the Japanese mission was finally sent on a trajectory so that it won't get there for THREE years. Something about course correction blah blah, but I was half asleep so don't recall the details.

BTW, the Chinese manned launch vehicle is named "Vessel of the Gods" (Sitchin, anyone?)

-- A (A@AisA.com), December 08, 1999.