Mars Updates

Earth and Moon as photographed by Mars Express which has released the Beagle for a Christmas landing on Mars. Image piped in from http://www.space.com/images/earth_express_pic_030717_03.jpg

Kari:

Our guest blogger on Mars exploration (Nov. 14, 2003 post), Robby, has given me some updates on what is happening out there.

He informed me that the Japanese Nozomi probe has failed. It has had a troubled history and the fuel apparently has nearly run out and it won't be able to achieve the orbit they planned for.

However, the ESA's Beagle mission remains on track as the lander has separated and is set for a Christmas day landing. First signals to indicate it survived the landing should arrive shortly after midnight PST.

Robby lastly points out some cool publicity trailers from NASA.

I hope the Beagle makes it down safe and look forward to what it finds!

Cheers,
Rene