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Mars Express launch today
mikerich writes "The European Space Agency and the Russian Space Agency will launch the Mars Express spaceprobe today using a Soyuz-Fregat out of Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Launch is scheduled for 17.45 UT (18.45 BST), so far all preparations have gone smoothly and the forecast is excellent.
The launch will be streamed over the Web by ESA.
Mars Express consists of two components, a large Martian orbiter which will be searching for sub-surface water and studying the Martian atmosphere. Its seven science packages have been built by teams from Europe, Russia, the United States, Japan, and China. Amongst the science packages is a radar for studying geological structures. Mars Express will map most of the planet in high-resolution colour stereoscopic 3D and perform a high-resolution mineralogical survey of the planet.
Mars Express is also carrying the tiny Beagle 2 lander designed by a team led by Professor Colin Pillinger of the Open University. Beagle 2 is Britain's first planetary space probe and designed specifically to look for life using the most advanced techniques currently available.
For those in the UK, the story of Beagle 2 is being told on BBC 2 on Monday 2nd June at 23:20."
Dan B. writes "The BBC is running an article on the European 'Mars Express', Europe's first interplanetary rocket. This is the first of three probes heading to the Red Planet this Summer, as it nears it's closest point from the Earth in thousands of years."
That's so 1976...
Je t'aime Stéphanie
I wish the Beagle 2 in particular the very best of luck. Britain has never really pulled its weight in ESA, leaving France, Germany and Italy to pay for most things; a successful Mars lander bearing the Union flag could well change all that. Mars Express as a whole was done on a small budget, and Beagle was hacked together from the money that could be found down the back of the national sofa; if they succeed, imagine what could be achieved with some _real_ money...
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
Let's hope the ESA engineers haven't been barkin' up the wrong tree.
Beagle 2 is Britain's first planetary space probe and designed specifically to look for life using the most advanced techniques currently available.
In the best British tradition the probe will lay out a tea set and some cucumber sandwiches to attract alien lifeforms.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
...to hearing Tom Brokaw proudly state that "Nasa has just sent a probe to Uranus!"
Not sure if this is a good idea in regards to future slashdotting, but there is going to be a webcam showing the proceedings.
...to hearing Tom Brokaw proudly state that "Nasa has just sent a probe to Uranus!"
Prior to this, the name Uranus will be changed to Urectum.
I was going to watch the launching from the ESA site.... /. I may simply forgot about it:-/
Now with the link to the streaming page published on
1. No sig. 2. ???? 3. Profit!!!
This is the first of three probes heading to the Red Planet this Summer, as it nears it's closest point from the Earth in thousands of years
People of Earth, hear us. We, the people of mars, grow tired of your repetetive probings!
You must cease and desist with this probing, especially with one named after a dog. (We've watched what your dogs do on your planet, and have no wish to undergo the same "leg" treatment.)
And you must stop this photography of our martian mounds. This blatant harrassment will only lead to a hostile relationship between us.
Perhaps with some beating, and bondage thrown in...
krystal_blade... No martians were harmed during the posting of this comment....
It will be easy to motivate our fellow man; there is hardly anything people treasure more than not being annihilated.
You seem to overlook the fact that a lot of very intelligent people who are well capable of learning from their own and the mistakes of others work on these projects. Its think it is far too cynical to assume there will be blunders just because there was a previous mixup. the ESA has a long history of successful collaboration on projects so why should this one be any different. I certainly hope this mission is successful and we get more useful data on Mars
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
In addition to these missions, also keep an eye on the NASA/ESA Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn and Titan, arriving later this year, as well as ESA's SMART-1 mission to the moon to be launched soon. Future plans include NASA's Mercury Messenger, and ESA's Venus Express and Bepi-Columbo.
Reception frequency: 10832 MHz
Polarisation: Horizontal
Symbol rate: 22 Msymb/s
FEC: 5/6
Service ID: 61950
Service name: ESA
TXT: none
Start of launch transmission: 19:15 CEST (17:15 GMT/UT)
Martian Overlord: What happen? .... Bzzzt Chirp!
Engineering Drone: Somebody set up us three probes.
Signals Drone: We get signal.
Martian Overlord: What!
Signals Drone: Main screen turn on.
Martian Overlord: It's You !!
Beagle: How are you gentlemen !!
Beagle: All your base are belong to us probes.
Beagle: You are on the way to destruction.
Martian Overlord: What you say !!
Beagle: You have no chance to survive make your time.
Beagle: HA HA HA HA
Martian Overlord: Take off every 'zig'!!
Martian Overlord: You know what you doing.
Martian Overlord: Move 'zig'.
Martian Overlord: For great justice.
krystal_blade
It will be easy to motivate our fellow man; there is hardly anything people treasure more than not being annihilated.
I'm serious here.
I know many of you hate us, and have even wished us ill-will recently, but rest assured, I don't hate you, and I wish you the best of luck in this endeavor.
New York, out...
Actually, Cassini will enter Saturn's orbit on July 1, 2004.
Cost. The budget was extremely tight and Russia launch cheaper than ESA, even for ESA-run missions. It's a pretty strange state of affairs.
The use of the U.K. Blue Streak launcher by the European Launcher Development Organisation (ELDO) was probably a mistake, but as the basis for developing launcher tech it wasn't a bad start; remember Europe didn't have the experience the US had through the Gemini program and effectively was starting from scratch, since the native expertise was whisked off to the US after WWII to work of the US space program.
I think you'll find that Ariane 4 was actually one of the most successful launchers around.
Had the Cluster project not chosen take to get a free ride on an unqualified launcher, no one would have given a rat's ass about Ariane 501. Unfortunately Arianespace started to believe their own PR...
ESA have always had a small fraction of the budget available to NASA; on that basis they've rather well really.
Please remain calm, there is no reason to pani... wait, where are you all going?
I didn't know this at first, so I thought it might help. The launch time is 12:15 pm in EST. Very soon now.
Maybe, until they want independence. We'll end up levying taxes against them, they'll not like it, and before you know it "The Redccoats are coming!" :)
Smokey, this is not 'Nam, this is bowling. There are rules.
Debunking the "59 Deceits"
Translation: "Our Secret Soviet Weather control machine is working perfectly. Now, where are Moose and Squirrel?"
"I'm just here to regulate funkiness."
The launch went fine. MEx is in Earth orbit. The first major maneuver will be at 20:15 GMT/UT.
Drivel. Why is natural good? Disease is natural, old age is natural, dinosaur killing asteroids are natural, eating your offspring is natural. Any intelligent spacefaring species worth its salt would consider primitive spaceprobes cute and worthy of a pat on the head. As for the "scientists should think" remark, tell me I had a sense of humour failure and you're trolling, because the alternative doesn't bear thinking about.
I hope there are still some people reading, but not enough to slashdot this site. I was mooching around the Beagle 2 mission site and found a link to Starsem, the Russian company that provided the launcher. They have the user manual for the Soyuz-Fregat launcher online!! How cool is that? Caution, it's an 8MB download.
Reality is defined by the maddest person in the room