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well, the wee beastie at least got of the ground okay!!
if any of you don’t know, Beagle2 is part of a European mission now on its way to Mars. it is a lander, designed to look for signs of life on the Red Planet. if all goes well, it should land on the surface in the early hours of Christmas Day this year. there is a website about the whole project- i had a look at it myself last night,and it’s quite interesting. if you haven’t seen the site, and/or are interested in the whole idea of this kind of space mission (and i know some of you will be!!), its at:
http://www.beagle2.com
🙂Great!
I was wondering how it went. Brittish (or British led) space exploration seems a bit weird with mainly the US and Russia doing all the exploring in the past. BUt to call it Beagle2 almost makes it a joke!
Until that is, you realise that the main experimentation activity will be to investigate the possibility of life on mars and that th ship was called Beagle2 after the name of the ship that Darwen traveled in on his voyage of discovery just before he published his theories on the origin of the species.
I hope it all goes well. Six months before they land, it’s a long wait! :/
It’s about time you blokes got off your arses and got up there with us! 😈
Seriously, its a FANTASTIC thing, USA has reduced space exploration funding dramatically over the last decade, and we’re at the point where it could honestly collapse. Main reason is there just is no “space race” anymore.
But now that the EU is starting up, who knows? Maybe this will fuel a new space race. I sure hope so.
As for the Beagle2, I loved the name! Not only because I have a beagle, but because it’s so apropos. A probe that burrows into rock and soil sounds just like my dog =)
I agree, great news! And I love that project’s name. There’s actually a fair amount of co-operation between the European Space Agency and NASA, but the friendly ❓ competition is good for everyone I think and ESA has some other interesting launches coming up.
I’m looking forward to the launch of the Rosetta mission next year–
http://sci.esa.int/rosetta/
It’s the first satellite that will attempt to put a lander on a comet, then spend two years running tests on the comet’s composition–all the way to its nucleus. The goal is: “to study the origin of comets, the relationship between cometary and interstellar material and its implications with regard to the origin of the Solar System.”The fly in the ointment is that it won’t reach the designated comet until 2014:!: so it’s a pretty high risk mission. I’m hoping both the satellite and I will last that long 😕
All of this stuff is so exciting!
elmey
i don’t know how many of you watched the launch, but i sat there yesterday evening wahtching it live….3…2…1…
BANG!!!!!!
the tv screen lit up, i got my fingernails from between my teeth and watched open-mouthed as the screen got brighter and brighter. it got to the point it was almost painful to look at. for what seemed like an eternity, you could see absolutely nothing. i thought ” oh f***, it’s blown up!!!”…then the nose of the rocket emerged from this bright cloud, and the whole thing soon roared away. i was sooo relieved! 😀
i don’t know about anyone else, but i’ll be keeping an eye on that site over the next few months, and who knows- i may even stay ‘sober’ enough on Christmas eve, so i can be there to see if it lands ok!! 🙄Here’s another link to CNN US edition. On the right hand side there are a TON of great links including interactive images of the Beagle2 and Mars.
{Edited by SadGeezer for formatting reasons only}
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