This is the camera behind the stunning European imagery from Mars. The High Resolution Stereo Camera on ESA
February 12th, 2004
Mars Express stares down throat of giant volcano New Scientist
Europe’s Mars Express orbiter has stared down the throat of the Solar System’s largest volcano, Olympus Mons, to produce the best ever images of the giant peak. The images, released on Wednesday, were taken with the orbiter’s High Resolution Stereo Camera (HRSC) from a height of 273 kilometres and reveal details as small as 12 metres across.
February 12th, 2004
Beagle 2 Inquiry Launched Guardian Unlimited
The European Space Agency has announced an inquiry in conjunction with the British government into why communication has been lost with the Mars lander Beagle 2. The science minister, Lord Sainsbury, said that the inquiry would be useful as a learning exercise for future planetary exploration missions.
February 11th, 2004
British, European Space Agencies Open Inquiry into Beagle 2 Loss
The European and British space agencies on Feb. 11 announced the creation of a board of inquiry to determine how future Mars missions might avoid the fate of the lost Beagle 2 lander, which has not been seen or heard from since its Dec. 19 separation from the Mars Express orbiter. So little is known about what happened to Beagle 2 — it is presumed to have entered the Martian atmosphere and landed on Dec. 25 — that the inquiry will focus less on specific causes of the mission’s failure than a broad survey of Beagle 2’s financing, development and testing.
February 10th, 2004
Valles Marineris Region
This image was aquired in orbit 18 on 14 January 2004 from an altitude of 275 km. It shows a region north of Valles Marineris located at between 5 and 10oN, 323oE. The image height is 50 km, it has a resolution of 12 m per pixel. The features in the picture indicate erosional processes possibly caused by water. North is to the right side of the picture.
February 6th, 2004
Will there be a Beagle 3? ZDNet UK
As business development manager for Logica CMG’s Space and Defence Division, Pat Norris has been charged with creating the IT infrastructure for some of Europe’s more exotic public and private sector projects. ZDNet UK caught up with Norris to discuss the UK integrator’s role in the ill-fated Mars probe Beagle 2, a separate Saturn mission and the politically tense Galileo project — a European civilian rival to the US military’s GPS system.
February 4th, 2004
Without a Trace: Whereabouts of Beagle 2 Remain a Mystery
Gone without a trace. The British-built Beagle 2 lander remains lost in action after attempting a landing on Mars late last year. The probe was ejected from the European Space Agency
January 28th, 2004
British scientists plan new Mars mission New Zealand Herald
British scientists have begun planning a “Beagle 3” mission to Mars for launch in 2007, even as they try their final attempt to contact the missing Beagle 2 lander. A message will be sent during the next seven days from the orbiting Mars Odyssey spacecraft telling the Beagle 2 – if it is operational – to reboot its computer. That carries the risk that the machine will never return to life if it was working.
January 27th, 2004
Hunt on for Beagle evidence
The commission of inquiry looking into the loss of the UK-built Beagle 2 lander will be hoping for one piece of evidence above all else in its investigation: a picture of the stricken probe on the surface of Mars. If it can get an image of an intact “pocket watch” robot on the Red Planet, this would significantly reduce the list of possible factors that could have blighted the mission.
January 27th, 2004
Final ‘last resort’ to find Beagle 2 before work begins on successor The Independent
British scientists have begun planning a Beagle 3 mission to Mars for launch in 2007, even as they try their final “last resort” attempt to contact the missing Beagle 2 lander. A full review of what may have gone wrong with the craft will be led by Professor Colin Pillinger, the chief scientist on the Beagle 2 mission, at the beginning of February.