The Mars Express prime contractor and the Mars Express ESA Project Manager have agreed the final delivery date for the Beagle 2 Mars lander with the Beagle team. The British-led lander will be delivered to the prime contractor (Astrium SAS) in Toulouse,for final integration with the Mars Express spacecraft on 30 January 2003.
November 30th, 2002
Ready to Dig the Dirt on Mars University of Leicester
The University of Leicester has successfully completed construction and test of the flight Model PAW, the ‘eyes and hand’ of the Beagle 2 Mars lander. The Beagle 2 project aims to send a UK-led lander to Mars in December 2003 as part of the European Space Agency
November 29th, 2002
Hirst launches spots into space Guardian Unlimited
On the big day, no human eyes will see it. It will make art history, but there will be no campaign to prevent it leaving the country. Its final gallery will be windy, freezing and lit by two moons. And the spot painting – a colour calibration chart destined for a scientific experiment – will put Damien Hirst on the map as never before. It will be the first commissioned design, aboard the first British lander, ever to touch down upon another planet.
November 28th, 2002
Damien Hirst unveils painting destined for Mars
Damien Hirst, the British artist who pickled a shark and displayed sliced livestock preserved in formaldehyde, is heading for outer space. On Thursday Hirst unveiled his latest creation
November 28th, 2002
Damien Hirst spot painting destined for Mars
Briton Damien Hirst, famed for pickling dead animals in formaldehyde, is hoping to boldly go where no artist has gone before after unveiling a tiny painting to be carried to Mars. The spot painting, which doubles as an instrument calibration chart, will be carried on the Beagle 2 spacecraft, which is scheduled to fly to Mars by December 2003.
November 22nd, 2002
Driving force behind Mars Express
The Ferrari Red Paint will not be the only thing breaking all speed records when it hurtles towards the Red Planet on-board the Mars Express spacecraft in 2003. The spacecraft itself has already broken some speed records of its own. Mars Express is the fastest-built satellite of its type in the history of space engineering. The unique way in which ESA drove the Mars Express project cut the amount of time from the original concept to actually putting contractors to work from the usual five years to just one year. Moreover, two years were shaved off the design and building phase – cutting it from the usual six to four years. However, there has been no compromise on the quality of the mission.
November 7th, 2002
‘The hair-raising ride to space’
Europe’s first voyage to the Red Planet is due to leave Earth next year for a Christmas rendezvous. The European Space Agency’s Don McCoy explains the tests needed to prepare the craft for its hazardous journey in the first of a series of diaries for BBC News Online.
October 19th, 2002
Bouncy parachute passes test for mission to Mars Electronic Telegraph
Britain’s attempt to send a space mission to Mars next year passed a major milestone yesterday when scientists successfully tested the parachute that will allow the craft, Beagle 2, to land safely on the Red Planet. The white nylon canopy, said to be the most efficient created, was attached to a metal weight and hurled from a balloon 350 ft above a Shropshire airfield. Fluttering in the dawn sunshine, it floated slowly to the ground.
October 18th, 2002
Mars lander undergoes drop test New Scientist
A simulated Mars landing took place at a remote airfield in Shropshire, England, at dawn on Friday, in a crucial last test for the UK’s first Martian probe. The trial run tested the parachute that will slow the Beagle 2’s rapid descent to the red planet’s surface. It was a success, with a dummy payload safely carried to the ground from a height of 90 metres. A prototype of the unique parachute design underwent testing in Arizona in September, but Friday’s experiment tested the final design.
October 18th, 2002
Chute test for Mars lander
Final tests are being conducted on the main parachute that will carry a European lander down on to the surface of Mars next year. The chute will help slow the descent of Beagle 2 after it is jettisoned from the main probe, Mars Express, which will go into orbit around the Red Planet. The parachute has been designed by famous balloonist Per Lindstrand from a special nylon – a very much lighter material than that used to make normal chutes on Earth.