British scientists push for new Mars mission by 2009

Source URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1290080,00.html
Posted at: http://www.air-attack/com/news/news_article/208

British scientists and engineers are pushing for a new Beagle 2 mission to Mars by 2007, or 2009 at the latest. Although the first British attempt to land on another planet failed when the tiny spacecraft reached Mars on Christmas Day and fell silent, the Beagle team still believes it could work.

Colin Pillinger, the Open University scientist who dreamed up the venture in 1998 and pushed it to a £50m reality in five years, revealed yesterday that he had invited the US space agency Nasa to consider Beagle 2 as an instrument for its Martian mobile science laboratory in 2009.

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