So, the plucky little Beagle 2 lander isn’t phoning home. It’s a painful time for the British scientists who poured so much time and effort into their machine — with each passing day it seems that they will be the newest members of a very exclusive club of people who risked big for big returns. The Mars Orbserver team knows the pain of that loss. So do the folks on the Mars Polar Lander teams. And others who have had problems and failures with spacecraft. There’s a real sense of loss and grief among these people. I remember when the Mars Observer was lost. Some of the people at the lab where I worked were part of the science team for that probe and they were numb and silent, a few in tears, over the disappearance of the mission.

It’s easy to say, “Well, these things happen” and it’s true that they do. But it doesn’t make it any easier. There’s not much you can say to make it better for the teams, but there’s a lot you can say that makes it worse. I think the “Beagle was the icing on the cake” and the “cherry on the cake” comments from the German and French science team members were about as thoughtless as it comes. Of course, I don’t know the complete quote, nor the context in which they made those statements, but if I were one of the anxious and worried British astronomers whose spacecraft was apparently lost, I would be livid at such comments. They look taunting and boorish. And make me wonder if scientific courtesy is lost on those who achieve success but cannot spare a few moments’ thought before they speak ill of their partners’ misfortune.

Well, I hope that the Beagle 2 does phone home. If it doesn’t we can use its disappearance to give us MORE data points on how to target robotic probes to Mars. Eventually though, it’s going to take a closer human touch at the controls of a Mars-bound spacecraft. When that will happen is anybody’s guess. But for now — with the approach of the next Mars probes (the Mars Exploration Rover missions, scheduled to land on January 3 and January 24, 2004), we’ve got more robots to attend to on the red planet.