European space controllers positioned the Mars Express spacecraft in preparation for a critical step in their mission to explore the Red Planet -- the launching of a probe designed to search the Martian surface for organic matter and water.
If all goes well, the Beagle 2 was to push off from the Mars Express and be sent on its way at 8:31 GMT yesterday. The British-built probe should land on the surface of the Red Planet roughly six days later.
Engineers at the European Space Agency's mission control in Darmstadt, in western Germany, expect to confirm the Beagle 2's launch at around 10:31 GMT.
The probe's launch is the first in a series of critical navigational maneuvers on which the success of the mission depends.
Officials say the launch consists of having the spacecraft gently push away the probe and setting it spinning to keep it stable as it heads toward Mars. Early on Dec. 25, the lander is expected to reach Mars' surface.
At the same time, mission engineers plan to position the Mars Express craft to fire its main engine for about 30 minutes, sending it into Martian orbit.
Should the attempt to drop the lander fail, it would disrupt the timing of efforts to put Mars Express into orbit, and possibly doom the mission, project manager Rudolf Schmidt said.
"If we get the timing wrong, the spacecraft could burn up in the atmosphere or miss Mars altogether," Schmidt said in a statement. "We just get one single chance."
The Mars Explorer, which cost about US$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 Baiknour cosmodrome in Kazakhstan 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 65kg 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 Martian 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.
PARLIAMENT CHAOS: Police forcibly removed Brazilian Deputy Glauber Braga after he called the legislation part of a ‘coup offensive’ and occupied the speaker’s chair Brazil’s lower house of Congress early yesterday approved a bill that could slash former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s prison sentence for plotting a coup, after efforts by a lawmaker to disrupt the proceedings sparked chaos in parliament. Bolsonaro has been serving a 27-year term since last month after his conviction for a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 election. Lawmakers had been discussing a bill that would significantly reduce sentences for several crimes, including attempting a coup d’etat — opening up the prospect that Bolsonaro, 70, could have his sentence cut to
A powerful magnitude 7.6 earthquake shook Japan’s northeast region late on Monday, prompting tsunami warnings and orders for residents to evacuate. A tsunami as high as three metres (10 feet) could hit Japan’s northeastern coast after an earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.6 occurred offshore at 11:15 p.m. (1415 GMT), the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said. Tsunami warnings were issued for the prefectures of Hokkaido, Aomori and Iwate, and a tsunami of 40cm had been observed at Aomori’s Mutsu Ogawara and Hokkaido’s Urakawa ports before midnight, JMA said. The epicentre of the quake was 80 km (50 miles) off the coast of
China yesterday held a low-key memorial ceremony for the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) not attending, despite a diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Tokyo over Taiwan. Beijing has raged at Tokyo since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi last month said that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger a military response from Japan. China and Japan have long sparred over their painful history. China consistently reminds its people of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre, in which it says Japanese troops killed 300,000 people in what was then its capital. A post-World War II Allied tribunal put the death toll
A passerby could hear the cacophony from miles away in the Argentine capital, the unmistakable sound of 2,397 dogs barking — and breaking the unofficial world record for the largest-ever gathering of golden retrievers. Excitement pulsed through Bosques de Palermo, a sprawling park in Buenos Aires, as golden retriever-owners from all over Argentina transformed the park’s grassy expanse into a sea of bright yellow fur. Dog owners of all ages, their clothes covered in dog hair and stained with slobber, plopped down on picnic blankets with their beloved goldens to take in the surreal sight of so many other, exceptionally similar-looking ones.
RSS