| Author (Person) | Banks, Martin |
|---|---|
| Series Title | European Voice |
| Series Details | Vol.9, No.43, 18.12.03, p3 |
| Publication Date | 18/12/2003 |
| Content Type | News |
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Date: 18/12/03 A mission to Mars planned on the back of a beer mat is due to reachits climax on Christmas Day - and provide the European Space Agency with a victory over the Americans. Martin Banks reports A TINY space probe the size of a garden barbecue will tomorrow (19 December) embark on the final leg of its hoped-for Christmas rendezvous with history. Mars Express - Europe's first solo mission to another planet - will send its Beagle 2 lander hurtling towards the Red Planet where it is due to arrive on 25 December. All eyes at the Paris-based European Space Agency (ESA) will be on Beagle 2's parent space craft as it jettisons its "stowaway" into Mars' atmosphere. It will send the lander twirling towards Mars at a velocity of Mach 31.5 (19,300 k/ph relative to Mars) on a precise trajectory. Beagle has no propulsion system of its own but will rely on the laws of physics to find its way to the planned landing site, a flattish basin in the low northern latitudes of Mars. Once Beagle 2 enters the Martian atmosphere, a heat shield will protect it as it is slowed by friction. Nearer to the ground, parachutes will be deployed and large gas-filled bags will inflate to cushion the final touchdown. Beagle 2 should bounce to a halt on the rocky red soil of Mars in the early hours of Christmas morning. Its first communication - relayed through NASA's Mars Odyssey craft - will contain a call signal especially written by the British rock band, Blur. The first day on Mars will be crucial for the lander. It has only a few hours of sunlight to recharge its battery using solar panels. Only then can it set about trying to answer a mystery that has puzzled generations are we alone in the universe or is there life on other planets? Astronomers have yet to resolve the issue, despite centuries of searching, but we might soon get an answer. If the 65kg Beagle craft survives its fiery descent to the crater of Isidis Planitia at 2.45am on Christmas Day, Europe will have pipped the Americans in a remarkable race to Mars. To achieve interplanetary immortality, all that is needed is for the probe to survive the next 14 days as it makes its final approach to the planet. Beagle 2 mission manager Dr Mark Sims said: "We've tried to choose the landing site, tried to choose the engineering to make sure it's a success. "But there are no guarantees in life." If all goes well, Beagle 2 will set about its task of looking for signs of past or present life on Mars. It will use a robotic arm to test for evidence of organic matter and water while Mars Express orbits overhead. During its working life of 687 days, European Space Agency controllers hope Mars Express will send back detailed pictures of the surface and use radar to scan for underground water. Scientists think Mars, which has frozen water in its ice-caps, may have had liquid water and appropriate conditions for life billions of years ago. It is thought water may also still exist as underground ice. Mars Express has already provided ESA with a unique perspective of Mars, managing to capture pictures with its high-resolution stereo camera which are quite different from those taken by Earth-bound telescopes. What we know from these pictures is that the sun shines on part of Mars' western hemisphere, but the rest of the planet remains in the dark. The dark areas at the top of the planet are part of the northern lowlands and the terrain is pitted with huge boulders, volcanic deposits and wind-blown dust sculptures. The camera will play a key role in the spacecraft's mission to investigate the structure, geology and atmosphere of the planet. It will create an image of the whole of Mars in full colour and 3D. If Beagle meets its milestone next week, probably the biggest cheer will come from UK space scientist Colin Pillinger, the man who invented the lander and, back in 1997, convinced ESA that it had to include a landing craft on the mission it was planning to orbit Mars. Pillinger, 60, who also manages to run a farm, scribbled out his initial design on a beer mat while chatting in a bar. Then he set about raising the €50 million necessary to build his dream machine. "There are more things that could go wrong on Beagle than you could ever imagine," he admits."But there is no point thinking about them now as there is not much we can do about them." One thing is sure: if the mission is a success it will prove that some ideas cannot be ignored - even those that started out on the back of a beer mat. 300m riding on interplanetary craft
Beagle 2 is on target to land on Mars on 25 December 2003. |
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