Re: World-leading space sector?
>Two words; "Beagle 2"
That it failed was more attributable to the funding bodies than Colin PIlinger's team.
You can't suddenly make scads of money available far too late for anything other than the prototypes to be sent (no time to build flight models) and expect miracles. Knowing the provenance of the airbag (used for prototype testing, patched, badly overweight and still containing atmospheric moisture when packed for flight) I'm surprised that it didn't leave a deep impact crater, let alone manage to partially open its shell. It probably hit hard enough to bust a gear, which is a hell of a lot less hard than I was expecting.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
