[X] My Assistant

[djellison]

Beagle2 - the next generation: In conversation with Colin Pillinger

Monday 8 March 2004 at 7pm at The Royal Society, London or via the RS webcast.

Beagle 2 was the plucky little spaceship that people in Britain and across the world took to their hearts.

The dream of a successful Mars landing on Christmas Day 2003 may be over but project leader, Colin Pillinger remains undaunted.

Join him at the Royal Society as he discusses the scientific and emotional legacy of Beagle 2 and Mars Express and his plans for a new voyage to the Red Planet. Admission is FREE and on a first come, first served basis - no ticket or advance booking required.

You can also watch this special event live on the internet from www.royalsoc.ac.uk/live.

For further information contact:
The Royal Society
6-9 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1Y 5AG Tel +44 (0)20 7451 2575/6 Fax: +44 (0)20 7451 2693
email: events@royalsoc.ac.uk



I'll be popping down from Leicester for sure. Anyone else planning on going - a Beagle 2 wake at the pub afterwards before I catch a 10:30ish train home?

Doug

[djellison]

Unlikely to get any funding - certainly not as much as say, £10m.

It's something of a disgrace imho. This Country is about 20% the size of the US, and whilst the US Space budget is approx $15b a year, the UK space budget ( which, proportionally should be about $3billion) - is infact, $100m. 0.6% the size of the US budget, from a population 20% the size.

Anyhoo - what I'd like to see is a US/ESA colaboration for the '07 time frame to include a Relay orbiter (including optical comms testing) which carries perhaps 2 Beagle " 2.1's" - perhaps of 100kg all up weight instead of the very harsh 60kg set by Esa

I dont believe there is anything wrong with the Beagle design itself, but it's EDL hardware could be more robust - and that is where the mass should be spent ( and perhaps a more able battery )

I am sure that a relay facility could be built of around 800kg including fuel - which could (on an eliptical orbit) deploy multilple landers after orbit insertion. A 1000kg payload to mars is within the ability of Soyuz or Delta II Heavy.

And - as learnt with MPL - we MUST have EDL telemetry, be it via an orbiter, or DTE. Without it - we can learn nothing from the failures of spacecraft arriving at mars.

Doug