Current calculations suggest that the landing ellipse for Britain’s Mars Lander, Beagle 2, is 70km (43 miles) long by 11km (7 miles) across. The calculation was made by Arthur Smith of Fluid Gravity Engineering. The area of this landing ellipse would barely cover London.
December 24th, 2003
Christmas landing for Mars probe Aljazeera
British probe the size of an open umbrella was due to land on Mars on Thursday and start trying to answer a question which has fascinated mankind for centuries – is there life on the red planet? Beagle 2, which weighs just 34 kg, is scheduled to open its panoply of parachutes and airbags and float down to the surface of Mars just before 0300 GMT Christmas Day.
December 24th, 2003
Mars Express on course The Age
European space officials said the Mars Express craft was “perfectly on course” toward the Red Planet, giving them confidence for a critical Christmas Day manoeuvre to fire it into orbit – key to Europe’s first mission to explore whether life ever existed on the planet. In preparation, mission control in the west German city of Darmstadt sent the first orbit-related commands to the craft. The mission’s other component is a probe that is due to touch down on Mars early December 25 European time as well.
December 23rd, 2003
Beagle 2: Little Mars lander that could?
Early Christmas morning, London time, a 70-pound British spacecraft, launched last June aboard a Russian rocket and hitchhiking behind a sophisticated European Space Agency orbital vehicle, is set to touch down on the surface of Mars. The lander, named the Beagle 2 — in honor of the sailing ship that transported Charles Darwin on his historic voyage to the Galapagos Islands in 1831 — represents an ingenious but daring entry in what is becoming a race to explore the red planet and establish once and for all whether it ever has harbored living organisms. If it succeeds, it could show up its bigger and much more expensive American cousins.
December 21st, 2003
Mars spacecraft repositioned for orbit
European space controllers said they repositioned the Mars Express spacecraft Saturday, steering it away from its collision course with the Red Planet and moving it toward Martian orbit on Christmas. The crucial maneuver comes a day after the Mars Express successfully separated from the unmanned Beagle 2 surface probe, sending the lander on its trajectory toward Mars.
December 21st, 2003
Mars mission inspires pupils
Scientists hope the Beagle 2 mission to Mars will inspire greater interest in science among school students. The spacecraft is due to land on the surface of Mars on Christmas Day, having detached from its “mothership”, the European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiter, on Friday. The University of Leicester and the National Space Centre, also in Leicester, are using the mission as he basis for an educational pack available to schools.
December 21st, 2003
My Beagle flies to Mars The Sun
This was the moment when the man behind the Beagle 2 space probe knew it had safely parted from its mother ship. Professor Colin Pillinger beamed and clasped his hands in glee yesterday as the British probe sped off towards a landing on Mars. Prof Pillinger was among an audience of VIPs including the Duke of York in London when the news came live from mission control in Germany.
December 20th, 2003
Message to Mars: the Brits are coming The Guardian
To cheers from scientists in Britain and Germany, a European spacecraft the size of a large washing machine detached a package the size of a home barbecue yesterday and sent it spinning gently on a five-day journey towards Mars at 12,500mph. On board were a parachute, a set of airbags, a heatshield, a camera, a drill, a torch, a Damien Hirst painting, music by Blur, a set of solar panels and an oven capable of heating rock to 1,000 C – powered by a source just big enough to light up a 60 watt bulb.
December 20th, 2003
Marsbound Sky & Telescope
At first glance, this photo looks like yet another lame attempt at a UFO hoax. But in reality it’s an important milestone in Western Europe’s first attempt to land a science package on the surface of another planet. At 8:31 a.m. Greenwich Mean Time on December 19, the British-built Beagle 2 Mars lander successfully separated from the European Space Agency’s Mars Express orbiter. Mars Express’s Visual Monitoring Camera took this image of Beagle 2 (far left) about two minutes after separation. Beagle 2 is just 20 meters (66 feet) from the mother ship and pulling ahead at a relative speed of about 0.3 meter per second.
December 20th, 2003
Beagle off the leash The Daily Telegraph
Beagle 2, the British probe that will seek out life on Mars, was ejected from its mother ship yesterday and started the final leg of its journey. Shortly after 8.30am, the tiny craft left the European Mars Express and was sent spinning towards the Red Planet. If it survives the descent, the