Thought you might be interested in these TV programmes if you can stay up that late:
The inside story of Britain's most ambitious space mission - to land on Mars and search for signs of life there - is told in Beagle 2: A Mission to Mars, a film five years in the making.
These Open University programmes for BBC TWO (11.20pm on Monday, June 2 and Tuesday, June 3) include exclusive behind-the-scenes footage the mission. Programme one is to be shown on the date scheduled for the launch – from Baikanour in Kazakhstan – of Beagle 2 and Mars Express, the European Space Agency craft on which it will be hitching its 250million-mile ride to the Red Planet.
So apart from Roland Garos, I wonder what else I might seek a peek at on Monday and Tuesday night!!
Thanks Delphine.
Click this link - http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/ - to watch the launch of the Mars Express mission from Khazakstan live from 1745 UT tonight (2nd June 2003)
didn't see it live, but did see it on the news.
The update today is that telemetry has been received from Mars Express and everything appears to be good.
The next bit of excitement will probably be the blowing of the anchor bolts securing Beagle2 to Mars Express. This is due in a couple of days.
Yep, there were some goodbits of the launch on the news. :wink:
I watched it all live on the net - Pretty good coverage. Gave a lot of technical info. with animations, etc. about the mission too.
I got myself organised well in advance and was watching it live on the net until 2 minutes before blast off when I was thrown out by AOL.:mad: I couldn't get back into the web site after that because it was too busy Luckily I was watching the news at the same time on the TV so I didn't miss it.
:grin:
[ This Message was edited by: Delphine on 2003-06-03 15:42 ]
well that's the launch clamps removed. So far so good.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2965400.stm
http://www.esa.int/export/SPECIALS/Mars_Express/SEMXY6374OD_0.html
Have a look here! :smile:
Fingers crossed that the non-communication with Beagle 2 is just a glitch and not a result of a catastrophic failure. There is still hope !! Good luck Beagle.
After the number of excuses and stories I've heard the past few days I can't help but feel the Beagle was attacked by Dotty!
Sorry........
Very mixed reporting on this one. The Register (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/05/24/beagle_uk_space/) is less rabid than the BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3741989.stm). It's a pity only the recommendations ore being released. Reading between the lines, and taking other reports into account, it seems likely that the main criticism is probably aimed at the govenment for not funding things properly in the first place...
A report into the loss of British Mars probe Beagle 2 says a failure by the UK government to commit funds early enough undermined the project's credibility.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3972849.stm
I bet Tony Blair makes a joke out of it at PM's questions...
oh how I find his jokes funny...
Aye. A fine Jester he is. :sad:
now that is a completely different proposition. If I sent him a hat and a pigs bladder on a stick, do you think he'd wear it during questiontime?
At least it'd add a little honesty to the proceedings... :wink:
The scientist behind the British Beagle 2 mission to the Red Planet says the craft may have been found in pictures of the Martian surface.
Colin Pillinger says the images suggest the mission very nearly worked, but Beagle somehow failed to contact Earth.
He thinks the craft may have hit the ground too hard - as the atmosphere was thinner than usual because of dust storms in that region of Mars.
For the full story cick here - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4542174.stm
Found an intersting site regarding evidence for the Beagle 2 crash/landing site - http://www.beagle2.com/index.htm
"It'll be like Steve Fossett all over again, only worse," said one embittered Reg hack on hearing the news that NASA has decided to send Beagle to the moon.
Yes, Beagle, the little lander that either couldn't, wouldn't or didn't, manage to land on Mars might be about to be resurrected and packed off to the Moon.
More: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/24/nasa_loves_beagle/
Possibly..................
Has Europe's Long-Lost Beagle 2 Mars Lander Been Found?
The U.K. Space Agency is holding a news conference Friday (Jan. 16) about Europe's Beagle 2 Mars lander, prompting speculation that the probe has finally been found more than 11 years after dropping off scientists' radar during its journey to the Red Planet.
The U.K.-led Beagle 2 was supposed to touch down on Dec. 25, 2003. The lander successfully deployed from the European Space Agency's (ESA) Mars Express orbiter on Dec. 19 of that year, but no touchdown confirmation came, and most experts think Beagle 2 crashed on the Red Planet's surface.
More: http://www.space.com/28248-mars-lander-beagle-2-update.html (http://www.space.com/28248-mars-lander-beagle-2-update.html)
Watch this space
Lost Beagle2 probe found 'intact' on Mars
The missing Mars robot Beagle2 has been found on the surface of the Red Planet, apparently intact.
High-resolution images taken from orbit have identified its landing location, and it looks to be in one piece.
The UK-led probe tried to make a soft touchdown on the dusty world on Christmas Day, 2003, using parachutes and airbags - but no radio contact was ever made with the probe.
Many scientists assumed it had been destroyed in a high-velocity impact.
The new pictures, acquired by Nasa's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, give the lie to that notion, and hint at what really happened to the European mission.
Beagle's design incorporated a series of deployable "petals", on which were mounted its solar panels.
From the images, it seems that this system did not unfurl fully.
More: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-30784886
...and a video from Leicester University: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAKAJR4N6zQ
Interesting. So the little Beagle 2 did make it down safely to the surface but failed to fold open properly. What a shame.
'Lost' 2003 Mars Lander Found by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
The Beagle 2 Mars Lander, built by the United Kingdom, has been thought lost on Mars since 2003, but has now been found in images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
A set of three observations with the orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera shows Beagle 2 partially deployed on the surface of the planet, ending the mystery of what happened to the mission more than a decade ago. They show that the lander survived its Dec. 25, 2003, touchdown enough to at least partially deploy its solar arrays.
Beagle 2 hitched a ride to Mars on the European Space Agency's long-lived Mars Express mission. It was a collaboration between industry and academia designed to deliver world-class science from the surface of the Red Planet.
More: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4446