“Space appears to have become fashionable again,” says Dr Colin Hicks, director general of the British National Space Centre (BNSC). Hicks is particularly busy at present. After the ill-fated Beagle 2 mission, the European Space Agency (ESA) has announced its desire to begin another Mars exploration space programme.
March 9th, 2004
Scientists Examine Image of Mars Beagle 2 Lander
European scientists said Monday they are examining an image of its Beagle 2 Mars lander, taken moments after it separated from its mothership and later was lost, that also shows an unidentified object. The mysterious blot on the photograph is being scrutinized as one of several potential reasons for the failure of the mission — Europe’s first attempt to land a probe on the Red Planet
Editor’s Note: Shades of Phobos 2‘s mysterious disappearance…
March 8th, 2004
Scientists May Have Spotted Britain’s Beagle Probe
Beagle 2, the British space probe which disappeared as it descended toward Mars, may have been detected on the surface of the Red Planet, scientists said on Monday. No signal has been received from the craft since it was due to land on Christmas Day last year, despite various attempts by Mars orbiters and telescopes on Earth to make contact. But photographic images of the area where Beagle 2 was to have come down show four bright spots, dubbed a “string of pearls” by scientists, which may be the remains of the probe.
March 8th, 2004
Beagle 2 may have sped to its death New Scientist
The missing Beagle 2 lander may have crunched into the Martian dust after plummeting through an unexpectedly thin atmosphere. New measurements from the spacecraft’s mothership, Mars Express, suggest the upper atmosphere can be far less dense than anyone thought. This could have been fatal for the lander because it relied on the atmosphere’s braking effect to trigger the release of its parachute.
March 8th, 2004
Beagle descent possibly too fast
The Beagle 2 lander could have crashed into Mars because the atmosphere on the planet was less dense than expected. Mission scientists told a London meeting the probe may simply have been going too fast for its parachute and airbags to bring about a soft landing.
March 2nd, 2004
Colin Pillinger to address public meeting Beagle 2 News Release
The Beagle 2 team has announced a public event to take place at the Royal Society on Monday 8th March.
March 2nd, 2004
Mars volcano shows ‘water flow’
Close-up pictures taken by Europe’s Mars Express probe of a volcano on the Red Planet reveal water could have flowed on its flanks in the past. Images of the 5,300m-high mountain, Hecates Tholus, taken 275km above Mars, also show signs of cratering on the slopes caused by volcanic activity.
March 1st, 2004
Mars Express In The Shadow Of Mars
It is the start of eclipse season for Mars Express. That means unavoidable passages of the spacecraft through the shadow of Mars, cutting it off from the sunlight that is converted into electrical power by the orbiter’s solar arrays. This creates a nervous time for engineers at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany.
February 20th, 2004
Mars Express works in shadows The Scientist
While NASA’s twin rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, garner all the headlines, the European Space Agency’s satellite, Mars Express, is poised to deliver just as much science, including important clues in the hunt for Martian life, at a far lower price. NASA spent more than $800 million on its project, while Mars Express cost a mere
February 18th, 2004
Mars probe looks at glacial scene
Europe’s Mars Express orbiter has taken a detailed image of what scientists think is a glacial channel on the surface of the Red Planet. The picture was taken using the orbiter’s high resolution camera at an altitude of 272 kilometres above Mars.