atgeirr - Slashdot User

Simulations May Explain Loss of Beagle 2 Mars Probe 98

Posted by timothy on Friday December 19, 2008 @04:17AM from the gremlins-are-everywhere dept.

chrb writes "Researchers at Queensland University have used computer simulations to calculate that the loss of the US$80 million British Beagle 2 Mars probe was due to a bad choice of spin rate during atmospheric entry, resulting in the craft burning up within seconds. The chosen spin rate was calculated by using a bridging function to estimate the transitional forces between the upper and lower atmosphere, while the new research relies on simulation models. Beagle 2 team leader Professor Colin Pillinger has responded saying that the figures are far from conclusive, while another chief Beagle engineer has said 'We still think we got it right.'"

Comment Re:Notice its C++ and not Objective-C (Score 1) 83

by atgeirr on Thursday January 19, 2006 @03:57AM (#14507877) Attached to: Intel Software Development Products for OSX

> Is it because they secretly realize they don't know C?

I will answer this: Yes, we realize that we don't know C. No, we do not keep it secret. If you are used to modern C++ with vector, string, *_cast, shared_ptr etc. it is not trivial to do things in pure C. I fear that I even will have to use malloc (*quakes in terror*) at some point if I use Objective-C. Also, in modern C++ everybody use the RAII idiom for all types of resources, while in Cocoa it seems to be standard to do manual reference counting - another difference that makes it more difficult.

However I did try it, and discovered that it was not that hard after all! At least for simple programs I had no trouble. But for more complex things I would probably have to go the Objective-C++ route. C is just too much effort for me.

Atgeirr

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