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."

Comments

Mars...

[SpanishInquisition]

That's so 1976...

Beagle, ESA and .uk

[meringuoid]

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...

Re:Beagle, ESA and .uk

[Jez]

Colin Pillinger was one of the originators of the "faster, cheaper, better" way of developing space probes. He had to be, because there's just no way that ESA could follow the NASA model of ever bigger, more expensive projects. I worked in his lab, back when Beagle2 and Cassini were just starting to be talked about. 2003 seemed so far off. It's amazing that it's actually here, and built, and ready to go.

Re:Beagle, ESA and .uk

[aallan]

A frugal scientist with twice as much funding may not be any more productive than a frugal scientist with his current budget.

Being a frugal British scientist working on a a tight budget I can tell you that while this may be true in some cases, just taking the stress of being so close to the wire away could mean that some people can get more science done. Heck I just blew the last three weeks writing grant proposals, very little science (or anything else, including sleep) got done during that time. For this I got a PhD?

Al.

If anything goes wrong...

[jabbadabbadoo]

...just call SOS Beagles

Let's hope the ESA engineers haven't been barkin' up the wrong tree.

The search

[Timesprout]

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.

Re:The search

[AndrewHowe]

Let's hope the aliens are not cucumber-like.

Damn it....

[botzi]

I was going to watch the launching from the ESA site....
Now with the link to the streaming page published on /. I may simply forgot about it:-/

Re:Two space probes enter a bar...

[Timesprout]

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

Most intense period of planetary exploration ever

[corleth]

Not only are Mars Express and Beagle 2 going to be joined by two NASA landers, but also the Japanese orbiter, Nozomi. These five missions will complement NASA's Mars Global Surveyor, launched in 1997, and Mars Odyssey, launched in 2001, which are still returning excellent data of the surface of Mars from orbit. This marks not only the beginning of the most intensive period of study of Mars in the history of space exploration, but also the start of a planetary science renaissance.

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.

Alternative to web broadcast

[corleth]

If you have access to Astra 2C satellite reception equipment, I suggest that you link directly in to the ESA television broadcast. The quality should be better and it might help relieve the slashdot effect. The details are as follows:

• Satellite:
• Astra 2C at 19 degrees East
  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)

Re:Good luck Europe!

[johannesg]

Many of us _hate_ you? Whatever gave you that idea?

It is certainly true many Europeans are not major fans of your current leadership, but frankly most of us hope you will eventually regain your senses and vote someone more sensible into the white house.

I'm disturbed that you felt you needed to post this. I didn't realize American perception of Europe can be so wrong. What do you think of when someone mentions Europe?