Mars pictures beamed back to Earth

[dasa]

Pictures of Mars have been received from the craft carrying Beagle 2 - the British probe due to land on the Red Planet on Christmas Day and search for life.

 

 

The images from the European Space Agency's Mars Express, captured from a distance of 3.36 million miles, were taken to test its high resolution camera.

 

Mars Express will use the camera to take close-up pictures of the Martian surface once it begins orbiting the planet. The test is one of a series of checks and rehearsals before the start of a critical series of manoeuvres on December 19.

 

Beagle 2 will then be "spun out" from the craft and start heading independently towards the planet. Gaele Winters, director of technical operations at ESA's control centre in Germany, said: "We will have to carry out some very precise navigational operations. There is a certain level of tension in the centre."

 

Both spacecraft are due to arrive at their destination on Christmas Day. While Mars Express fires its main engine to go into Martian orbit, Beagle 2 will head for a landing site within a large impact basin near the planet's equator.

 

Scientists believe that long ago the Isidis Planitia region may have been covered with water. It is therefore a good place to look for evidence that life once existed on Mars, or might even still survive there. Beagle 2 will collect rock, soil and air samples and analyse them in an on-board laboratory for chemical signs of life.

 

Meanwhile Mars Express will carry out a detailed survey of the planet from the sky, using powerful radar to search for any water trapped underground. Last month Mars Express, launched into space by a Russian rocket on June 2, weathered a solar storm caused by high energy particles from eruptions on the Sun.

 

The spacecraft's computers were temporarily disrupted but returned to normal once the storm had passed. Flight officials said Mars Express had also suffered a drop in electrical power to about 70% of what was expected, but did not think this would derail the mission.

 

 

Story filed: 16:05 Wednesday 3rd December 2003

[Guest guest]

Hi dasa.

 

I've seen Mars surface pictures before. They like totally look like the moon!

 

But the moon is luminescient. Why doesn't that show in the moon pictures? Doesn't fit.

 

But their is little common sense to question.

 

I think they're really spending money on spy satellites and stuff. This probe scenario is just a bluff to justify a big budget.

 

Like Prabhupada said: They spend millions of dollars and come back with rocks that are hailed as a big accomplishment. Simply foolish.

 

They don't return to the moon because it would be harder to maintain the hoax if they did. They could still go for all their original reasons.

 

But their is little common sense to question.

[Guest guest]

I posted the article above. That's really what I think about this stuff.

 

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- It has been 31 years since a U.S. astronaut last walked on the moon, but China's space ambitions have signaled a possible American return to the lunar surface as part of a renewed space program.

 

Aides to U.S. President George W. Bush say he is on the verge of calling for a return to the moon as part of a dramatic new mission for NASA.

 

Sources tell CNN the target for returning to the moon is about 15 years from now. But a lunar date is not yet embraced by a White House still debating key policy and multibillion dollar budget questions.

 

It remains to be seen if any of the plans actually lift off or if China and the United States embark on some form of a "space race". But on the table of American ideas is a permanent presence on the moon and even a manned mission to Mars.

 

Certainly, Bush wants to set bold new goals in space, but has not made key decisions, aides tell CNN.

 

"There are no plans for any policy announcements in the immediate future, " White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan confirmed.

 

China's first manned space flight in October and its talk of a future landing on the moon within the next two decades may end up being the spark to re-ignite the U.S. space program.

 

That program has been hit by cost cutting, budget restrictions and a stall in the wake of the Columbia space shuttle disaster.

 

"You've got the Chinese saying they're interested -- we don't want them to beat us to the moon. We want to be there to develop the sweet spots," Republican Senator Sam Brownback says.

 

Some analysts say a Chinese-American space rivalry may prove healthy and lead to other benefits such as new drug products, but other White House hawks see Beijing's space program more as a warning.

 

They say China could use a space base to test new rockets or other technology that may prove threatening to the United States at some later date.

 

Though the White House is not pleased some of the proposals have been leaked out -- possibly by NASA officials keen to push forward the space program -- it has given cause for enthusiasm among space visionaries.

 

Shortly after February's Columbia disaster, Bush quickly committed to resuming shuttle flights with NASA's latest target for a launch set for early 2005.

 

The Apollo 17 lunar module "Challenger" liftoffs from its landing site at Taurus-Littrow.

 

"Mankind is led into the darkness beyond our world by the inspiration of discovery and the longing to understand. Our journey into space will go on," he said in February.

 

Among the administration's review of the space program:

 

• Setting a target for retiring the shuttle fleet

 

• A plan to phase out the International Space Station

 

• Picking a new space vehicle for manned flights

 

• Debating the costs and benefits of a permanent moon base

 

• Developing a proposal for a mission to Mars.

 

NASA has been urgently refining its space proposals and Vice President Dick Cheney is consulting key members of Congress.

 

Some are expecting Bush to make a pronouncement during a December 17 speech to mark the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers' first flight.

 

But the new space initiative is unlikely to be ready by then as many critical decisions remain.

 

Some top advisers tell CNN the proposal might not be completed by the time Bush delivers his State of the Union address in late January.

 

One thing is for certain. For at least another 15 years or so, astronaut Eugene Cernan's bootprint from December 1972 will remain the last legacy of man on the moon.

 

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