Preparations are complete for the Europeans' big space operation, next year. Its purpose: to find out the composition of organic materials on the surface of the "Red Planet" * The new Beagle will try to search for life on Mars
The European Space Agency, ESA, has begun preparations for the launch to Mars of a British research probe named "Beagle-." It will reach the "Red Planet" on a special spacecraft.
"Beagle" 2 is named after the research ship in which Charles Darwin, the father of the theory of evolution, sailed around the world almost two hundred years ago. The spacecraft that will land "Beagle" will be called "Mars Express". It is supposed to be launched in 2003 on a Russian rocket.
The British built "Beagle-2" as a light landing craft. Its weight is only about 30 kg. Another feature of the operation: the project is managed by the Open University of Great Britain. In the traditional way, similar operations are carried out by large space agencies (such as NASA and the Russian agency), or at least by large and established universities.
This innovation, of running such a complex project by a young and small institution, raises the hope that more academic institutions, including small ones, are capable of developing complicated space operations, more than before.
"Mars Express" will take advantage of the great proximity between the Earth and Mars, due to the characteristics of the orbits of these two bodies in space, to reduce the required flight time, and therefore increase the number of instruments that the spacecraft will be able to carry.
This research operation should continue until the year 2007. The main spacecraft will continue to circle Mars for about four years, studying its surface from afar and also the trajectory of the intriguing planet, while "Beagle" 2 will operate on its surface and transmit the data it collects to Earth through the spacecraft's computer orbiting Mars.
The main goal of landing "Beagle" is to look for signs of life on Mars. This will be done by isolating the signals of water and various organic substances found both in the atmosphere and on the surface of Mars. In addition to this, cameras and other devices will check the chemical composition of the rocks, the ones that the lander will encounter during its movement.
Among the set of instruments, "Beagle" 2 will also bring a microscope to Mars so that it can photograph tiny details that will be discovered on top of the rocks. Another innovation that will be implemented in "Beagle" 2: a revolutionary method for collecting soil samples. The lander will have a robotic arm, capable of bringing the cameras and microscope in it, up to very close in front of the rocks. It will also deploy a special collection tool, shaped like a cylinder and with an independent drive mechanism, capable of "crawling" on the surface of the ground, or digging into it.
This tool is called a "mole" and will be constantly connected to the lander, receiving through this connection the electricity required for its operation, the command signals. The reception of the collected data will also go through this communication channel and connection.
According to the plan, the mole will collect rock samples and bring them to the lander, for the chemical and biological analyses. In order for these to succeed and not be disrupted due to the activity of bacteria originating from the Earth, "Beagle" 2 is now undergoing a series of disinfections, which should reduce the amount of bacteria that will be on it to at least 300 per 1 square meter of the spacecraft's surface area. And in all: less than 300 thousand spores.
These values were established in a special international agreement dealing with the protection of extraterrestrial sites from biological contamination. "Beagle - "2 until it takes off next year - will therefore be among the cleanest objects on the planet in the near future.
The new Beagle will fly to Mars to search for life
11.12.2002
By: Avi Blizovsky
Almost two hundred years after Charles Darwin set sail on His Majesty's ship the Beagle on a voyage that revolutionized the way people look at the Earth. Beagle 2 will take off to search for life elsewhere in the universe.
If we can find any evidence of life - in whatever form - in space, that would be wonderful. This will finally prove that we are not alone." said Beagle-2's chief scientist, Colin Pillinger."
Randall Keynes, Darwin's great-great-grandson and coincidentally also a relative of the economist Michael Keynes was thrilled. "Darwin must have been very excited if he heard about Beagle 2," Keynes said at the opening of an exhibition at the British National Maritime Museum on the Beagle's voyages. "The basic question asked in both Beagle journeys is how life began. Darwin caused a revolution in religions with the theory of evolution about natural selection. If we find life on another planet, it is important what it will do," he said.
The saucer-shaped spacecraft, entirely of British development, will lift off from the Baikonur spaceport in June 2003 and plummet to Mars seven months later.
Humanity has been fascinated by Mars for 5,000 years - and in this case also the planet that is the easiest to reach." Pillinger said. The scientific team developed a special parachute that would slow down the fall of the spaceship weighing about 30 kilograms from a speed of 130 km/h to a speed at which it could survive - about 60 km/h.
When the spacecraft lands, a laboratory the size of an umbrella will open out of it, and out of it will break a mechanical arm with searchers, spectrometers and cameras, as well as an array of solar cells to supply them with electricity. About a third of the spacecraft's weight is dedicated to pure science and mostly to a spectrometer that will be used to measure the mass and chemical composition of the surface. "We calculate the activity by an operational lifetime of 180 days, if we're lucky, before the solar collectors get covered in dust," Pillinger said. According to him, the temperature drops every night to minus seventy degrees Celsius. "We will look for water and minerals that could provide us with evidence if there was flowing water and organic materials on the planet. If we can show that life evolved there, it will answer the biggest question facing humanity." said.
Keynes says that despite the 172 years separating the two beagles, his grandfather would have known and appreciated the initiative. Navigation was also important to Darwin in the local Beagle and is also essential to Beagle 2, he added. "Darwin also asked big questions about life, as Beagle 2 is now doing."
