PantyFanatic,

I was thinking about the myriad number of trade-offs that went into the finished product.

There was a redesign part way through, when the airbags burst when tested. The new airbags and parachutes had to be heavier, and that meant losing some mass from the scientific payload.

A mass distribution for Beagle 2 had to have already been negotiated between the scientists and the engineers; so many kilograms for the scientific instruments, so many for the parachutes and airbags. I believe that about 3 kg had to go – out of about 68 kg. That’s more than 4%. What goes? What stays? There had to have been some optimization rules/guidelines/procedures, and there must have been some difficult decisions. There is probably little leeway when it costs so much to lift each kilo out of earth’s gravity well.

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Eudaimonia