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European Controllers Launch Mars Probe

Posted on: Friday, 19 December 2003, 06:00 CST

European space controllers launched the Beagle 2 probe on its final approach to Mars on Friday, a critical step in Europe's first mission to explore the Red Planet for signs of life.

The British-built probe is scheduled to land on Mars' surface on Christmas morning.

"I'm very proud to say we have made a big step toward getting to Mars, but this is really only the beginning," said David Southwood, the European Space Agency's director of science.

In the control room, screens flashed to red more than two hours after the launch was set in motion to confirm the lander was on its way to Mars.

"It was a relief, absolutely, we have all been waiting for this moment for a long time and when our screens lit up we were ecstatic," Mars Express official Zeina Mounzer said.

The mission is the first to try to determine if there is life on Mars since the United States sent the Viking I landing craft to Mars' surface in 1976.

"It's not looking for little green men, but it is looking for matter that might provide evidence of life. It is looking for clues," Southwood said earlier.

The probe's launch is the first in a series of critical navigational maneuvers on which the success of the mission depends.

During the launch, the spacecraft gently pushes the probe away, setting it spinning to maintain stability as it heads toward Mars. Early on Dec. 25, the lander is expected to reach the surface.

At the same time the probe is to reach the surface, mission engineers plan to position the Mars Express craft to fire its main engine for about 30 minutes, sending it into Martian orbit, around 250 miles from the surface. Once there, the Express will use radar to penetrate the surface looking for layers of water or ice.

"This if the first time we will be looking under the surface of Mars using radar from Mars Express," Southwood said.

Project manager Rudolf Schmidt had warned that failure to launch the launder could doom the mission. "We just get one single chance," he said.

Of 34 unmanned American, Soviet and Russian missions to Mars since 1960, two-thirds ended in failure. In 1976, twin U.S. Viking landers searched for life but sent back inconclusive results.

Earlier this month, Japan was forced to abandon its troubled mission to Mars, which was to determine whether the planet has a magnetic field, when officials failed in their attempts to position their Nozomi probe on course to orbit the planet.

The Mars Explorer, which cost about $345 million, is an attempt to demonstrate that Europe can have an effective - and relatively inexpensive - space exploration program.

Launched atop a Russian Soyuz-Fregat rocket from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on June 2, Mars Express has weathered solar eruptions that bombarded it with high-energy particles, temporarily disrupting its computers, as well as an unexpected drop in electrical power.

The 143-pound Beagle 2 - named for the ship that carried naturalist Charles Darwin on his voyage of discovery in the 1830s - will use a robotic arm to gather and sample rocks for evidence of organic matter and water, while Mars Express orbits overhead.

During its working life - planned for one Martian year, or 687 Earth days - engineers hope Mars Express will send back detailed overhead pictures of the planet's surface and use a powerful radar to scan for underground water.

Scientists think Mars, which still has frozen water in its ice caps, might have once had liquid water and appropriate conditions for life but lost it billions of years ago. It is thought water may also still exist as underground ice.

U.S. officials are discussing a new course of space exploration, and debate has focused on whether the United States should set its sights on returning to the moon or landing on Mars.

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On the Net:

European Space Agency: http://www.esa.int/export/SPECIALS/Mars-Express/SEMTERWLDMD-0.html

Beagle 2: http://www.beagle2.com

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