The developers of the Mars Express lander, more popularly known as “Beagle 2”, hope their project will be riding aboard the Mars Express spacecraft as it departs Earth for Mars in the Spring of 2003.
October 26th, 1999
ASPERA-3 Receives Confirmation Approval
Welcome to ASPERA-3, the first Mission of Opportunity to be selected as part of the Discovery Program. The ASPERA (Analyzer of Space Plasmas and Energetic Atoms) experiment is one of seven scientific instruments that will fly on the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Mars Express mission, planned to launch in mid-2003. The main objective of the mission is to search for sub-surface water from orbit and drop a lander on the Martian surface. The instruments onboard the orbiting spacecraft will perform remote sensing measurements designed to answer questions about the Martian atmosphere, the planet’s structure and geology. The Mars Express team consists of ESA engineers, industry and hundreds of international scientists.
September 1st, 1999
Blur’s future is out of this world
Pop band Blur are in the studio recording the first music to be played on the planet Mars – and are denying rumours they are planning to split. The band, who are celebrating 10 years together, are providing a song which will be beamed back from the unmanned UK space probe Beagle 2 when it lands on the red planet in 2003.
August 4th, 1999
Britain Sends The Beagle In
The UK government has backed the the Mars Express lander, Beagle 2, with an extra $8 million that firmly puts the project on track to secure full funding from a mixture of public and private sources.
August 3rd, 1999
British government to part-fund Mars space probe
Britain committed itself Tuesday to a space mission to Mars, partly funded by industry, to determine whether there is life on the red planet.
August 2nd, 1999
Britain wants to investigate Mars
Britain wants to send a space probe to Mars in 2003 to investigate whether there is life on the red planet, the government said Sunday.
August 2nd, 1999
Brits hit Mars
A British spacecraft looking for alien life seems set to land on Mars in 2003, after the UK Science Minister pledged
August 2nd, 1999
Brits to Send Tiny Craft to Mars
An $8-million pledge of support by the British government is giving a boost to Britain’s plans to land its own spacecraft on Mars in late 2003 or early 2004. The craft, named Beagle 2, will travel to Mars along with the European Space Agency’s Mars Express mission — an orbiting spacecraft that will carry a suite of scientific instruments to the red planet.
July 31st, 1999
UK mission to Mars
Britain is to launch a space probe to investigate the possibility of life on Mars. A spacecraft will descend to the surface of the red planet in 2003 and gather samples which will be examined for traces of life.
June 16th, 1999
Starsem To Launch Mars Express
ESA has signed a launch contract with Starsem to launch the Mars Express probe in 2003 aboard a Soyuz-Fregat vehicle.