As we all know, the British lander Beagle II was lost shortly after it was released from the European Mars Express orbiter in December 2003 ...
Does anyone know if the Beagle II animation is available on the WWW ?
( It was made by one of the British pop-group Blur and shows the launch, cruise & landing on the red planet ... Beagle II is welcomed on Mars by both members of BLUR in spacesuits awaiting the lander on Mars )

Philip

http://www.beagle2.com/resources/video-album.htm

Specifically

http://video.beagle2.com/Descent/play_descent_a_640x368.htm
http://video.beagle2.com/Descent/play_descent_b_640x368.htm
http://video.beagle2.com/Descent/play_descent_c_640x368.htm

The first part of the animation is wrong in depicting MEX deploying B2 from what appears to be Martian orbit - whereas in actual fact MEX deployed B2 several days before arriving at Mars.

I getting asked about the fate of Beagle 2 in almost every talk I give - the British public is very proud of that little spacecraft, despite it being a failure simply because it was an underdog type situation. I just hope MRO can give us some sort of answer.

Doug

Thanks Doug, I already knew these but I'm really searching another animation which shows the band-members appearing from behind a rock and seeing the lander's entry ... probably made for high-school audiences?
It was made by Dave Rowntree of BLur who has his own animation studio !
Philip

Oh right - that was the Music video to the actualy song called Beagle 2 - not sure where you would get that.

Doug

Like Scott in Antarctica, I presume? Amundsen may have beat Scott and his party to the South Pole in 1912, but like Apollo 13 over Apollo 11, they are the ones who got the publicity because of the tragedy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amundsen-Scot...th_Pole_Station

Apollo 13 over 11? That's a first. You see Armstrong and Aldrin in the news even now, how many of us even remember the names of the Apollo 13 astronauts?

Scott had just better PR.

Which Apollo mission did they make a feature Hollywood film about?

And it's Lovell, Haise, and Swigert.

Scott had the entire yet slowly dimming British Empire as his PR agent.

Amundsen assumed making it there first and back alive was enough
recognition.

Yeah but Lovell got all the killer line "Huston, we have a problem" as did Scott with "I am just going outside, and I may be some time". Amundsen just didn't have the punch line.

I went to the South Pole centuries ago, but I just don't like to brag.

So THAT'S why they made that movie "The Thing".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4542174.stm

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.

I can find no other way to interpret this than as an insult.

Take it outside please gentlemen.

This is *not* the place.

Chris

Emily Lakdawalla's indispensable blog has a thoughtful comment on this announcement, pointing out that Mike Maslin's team, which took the pictures, has not said anything about having located Beagle.

http://planetary.org/blog

TTT

.....but the people at MSSS dismissed it as a a potential "CRASH" site. The Beagle team are suggesting it came down in the crater.

That wasn't Scott, that was Oates.

tty

Aargh. You are right. Hangs head in shame. Must remember to check smart alec responses before posting.

I recently read a surprisingly good SF story ("May Be Some Time") in which poor old Oates is dug up frozen and successfully revived in the late 21st century, leaving him with a rather serious problem in sudden cultural adaptation -- which he overcomes with the partial assistance of Buck Rogers comic books!

Not possible I'm afraid. They were down on the Ross shelf at that time so Oates' body would have been calved in an iceberg and lost in the Southern Ocean long ago.

tty

Says Mattingly on my (treasured) pre-flight crew portrait!

Bob Shaw

tty:

If Frank Poole could be revived, then why not Cap'n Oates?

What we must all fear, however, is the reanimation of Cap'n Bob!

Bob Shaw
(no relation)

Kevin Bacon replaced him just before the launch.

BBC 4/28/06:

"Cartoon history of race to Mars "

Excerpts:

"The display is a quirky pictorial history of our fascination with the Red
Planet over the centuries, cataloguing the highs and lows of Mars
exploration through the irreverent, and sometimes cruel, eyes of the
cartoonist."

[snip]

"The exhibition is sponsored by the Particle Physics and Engineering
Research Council (PParc), which stumped up some of the cash for the Beagle 2
mission.

Head of communications at PParc, Peter Barratt, says he hopes people will be
entertained by the exhibition, learn a little science, and come away
enthused enough to support future missions.

'It's another opportunity to bring the fascination of space and scientific
research to hopefully a wider audience through cartoon art,' he says."

Full text and a brief slide show:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4950056.stm