[blam]

There will be a lot going on around and on Mars in the next few weeks.

[NormsRevenge]

"This illusion you need 200 or 300 people for an unmanned space mission is just that - an illusion."

Something tells me, this guy's talents are being wasted here .... :-\

[Arkinsaw]

Beagle 2. A great name. I hope they are very successful.

[NormsRevenge]

All Rights Reserved Beagle 2

[GeronL]

The US has 2 satellites set for January and I think the Russians sent one too... I think the Japanese lost theirs.

[Prodigal Son]

At "mission control" Leicester, however, is a seven-strong group of academics working in an anonymous white room about 20m square.

In Leicester, there are no giant plasma screens hanging on the wall, just one slim electronic message board. It has a simple job: counting down to the arrival of the Beagle 2 lander on Mars. There are also three coloured lights: red, amber and green. A red light will tell people that data is coming in from the Red Planet.

Here is a lecturer's whiteboard, which has rows of "interplanetary cruise control" statistics scrawled in felt-tip pen. The ranks of computer terminals are crammed together on ordinary office desks. Yet in one corner is a genuine piece of space technology - a working replica of the Beagle 2 spacecraft expected to land on Mars early on Christmas Day. It is a small, shell-shaped device, which now has three circular "leaves" holding solar panels pealed open over a laboratory bench.

I like it. Simple. Not more than you need. I hope NASA is taking notes.