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LONDON (Reuters) - Britain and the European Space Agency said Monday they had learned from the failure of the Beagle 2 mission to seek out life on Mars, but kept a report on the high-profile flop tightly under wrap. The Beagle 2, named after the ship Charles Darwin sailed in when he formulated his theory of evolution, was built by British scientists for about $89.46 million and hitched a flight to Mars aboard the European Space Agency's orbiter Mars Express. Beagle was due to crash into Mars in a bouncing ball of airbags and begin looking for signs of life...

Beagle 2 mission was doomed long before take-off, claims inquiry By Robert Matthews, Science Correspondent (Filed: 23/05/2004) The Beagle 2 mission to Mars was a disaster waiting to happen, according to the official inquiry into the debacle, whose findings will be made public tomorrow. Hailed as Britain's first probe to another planet, Beagle 2 was supposed to have touched down on the Red Planet on Christmas Day last year and perform experiments to detect signs of alien life. Critics of Prof Pillinger warned that Beagle 2 had not been adequately tested Instead, all contact was lost with the probe just...

<p>FAIRBANKS -- When Tiffany Morris looked out the window in Anderson and saw her pet beagle, Buddy, standing face to face with a grizzly bear, she couldn't bear to look.</p> <p>"They were standing there nose to nose, looking at each other," said Morris, 20, describing the incident Tuesday night as her life's scariest moment.</p>

Astronomers holding thumbs in Beagle searchMarch 08 2004 at 06:30PM By Mark Meadows London - Beagle 2, the British space probe which disappeared as it descended towards Mars, may have been detected on the surface of the Red Planet, scientists said on Monday. No signal has been received from the craft since it was due to land on Christmas Day last year, despite various attempts by Mars orbiters and telescopes on Earth to make contact. But photographic images of the area where Beagle 2 was to have come down show four bright spots, dubbed a "string of pearls" by scientists,...

Beagle 2 entered Mars 'too fast' A heat shield will protect Beagle during descent The Beagle 2 lander could have crashed into Mars because the atmosphere on the planet was less dense than expected. UK mission scientists told a London meeting the probe may simply have been going too fast for its parachute and airbags to bring about a soft landing. The Royal Society conference also heard photographic evidence had found four bright spots, dubbed the "string of pearls", on the surface of the planet. Scientists are studying the images to see if they show the lander's remains. They want...

European Mars lander still AWOL, scientists try to restore contact London-AP -- With Europe's first Mars probe silent more than a month, British scientists have announced a "last resort" plan to reboot its computer and hope for the best. The European Space Agency hasn't heard from Beagle Two since it separated from its mother ship last month. That's despite help from a Mars orbiter and NASA and British telescopes.The British-built lander was due to land on the red planet on Christmas Day. The European Space Agency sent a craft to survey the landing site, but heard nothing.The lead scientist on...

Mars 'Grand Canyon' snapped by Beagle mother ship Mars Express, the mother ship of Britain's ill-fated Beagle 2, has sent back its first pictures of the Red Planet's Grand Canyon. The pictures show Valles Marineris - more than six times deeper than the famous Grand Canyon on Earth and as long as the whole of Europe. It is the first image of this size showing the surface of Mars in high resolution in colour and in 3D. The lower part of the picture shows the same region in perspective view as if seen from a low-flying aircraft. It shows vast...

New bid fails to raise Beagle Scientists say two further attempts to contact Britain's Beagle 2 Mars probe have failed. The craft's mothership, Mars Express, flew over the landing site at 12.50pm yesterday and 1.27pm today but heard no signal. Mars Express was in its most sensitive listening mode. Hopes of finding the lander, which has been missing since Christmas Day, are now fading fast.More passes will be made tomorrow at 2.04pm and on Monday at 2.02am. Story filed: 18:10 Friday 9th January 2004

Still no sign of missing Beagle Beagle 2 vanished during landing Beagle 2's mothership will begin searching for the missing probe in the next few days. Mission scientists said on Sunday that further attempts to contact the British-built lander had failed. They are pinning their hopes on the European Space Agency's (Esa) Mars Express, which will be in position to look for its "baby" on Wednesday. The news came as the US space agency Nasa celebrated the safe landing of its Spirit rover on the Red Planet. It sent back images of the rocky, barren surface of Mars within hours...

<p>LONDON, England (AP) -- Scientists have ruled out two possible explanations for their inability to pick up signals from Europe's Beagle 2 Mars probe and discovered another -- a large crater where the vessel was supposed to land.</p> <p>The European team has received no transmissions from the craft, which was supposed to touch down on the distant planet on Christmas Day to begin its search for Martian life.</p>

LONDON (AP) - Scientists again failed Saturday to pick up a signal that would confirm Europe's first Mars lander arrived safely on the Red Planet. A third attempt by NASA's orbiting Mars Odyssey - at about 1:15 a.m. EST - made no contact with the Beagle 2, which was supposed to have landed at 9:45 p.m. EST Wednesday. The tiny craft should have started emitting its signal within a few hours. Britain's Jodrell Bank Observatory, which has twice scanned the Martian surface with its huge radio telescope, also could not detect a signal from the tiny lander, which was sent...

Beagle glides solo towards Mars An image from Mars Express' camera showed Beagle 2 drifting awayBeagle 2 has successfully separated from its "mothership" for the final leg of the journey to Mars.Mike McKay, flight operations director at the European Space Operations Centre (Esoc) at Darmstadt, Germany, confirmed the separation just after 1110 GMT. The tiny probe will now glide the last three million kilometres to the Red Planet alone; silent, powerless and in hibernation mode. The lander is expected to touch down on Mars on Christmas Day, to search for signs of life, past or present. 0710 GMT - Green...

    Mars Express Positioned for Beagle 2 DeploymentBy Peter de SeldingSpace News Staff Writerposted: 10:20 am ET16 December 2003  PARIS-- Ground controllers of Europe's Mars Express satellite on Dec. 16 successfully completed a precision-pointing maneuver to prepare the satellite for a planned Dec. 19 ejection of its small Beagle-2 lander, the mission's flight director said.Michael McKay, flight operations director at the European Space Agency's Esoc space operations center in Darmstadt, Germany, said Mars Express was rotated and its engines briefly fired to increase the satellite's speed as it approaches Mars as part of the maneuver.    Images A breakdown of...

MOSCOW - An unmanned European spacecraft — poised for launch Monday on a Russian rocket — will orbit Mars for nearly two years and search for signs of life on the planet. AP Photo The Mars Express spacecraft is to be launched by the Soyuz FG booster rocket from the Russian-operated Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 9:45 p.m. Monday (1:45 p.m. EDT), according to the Russian Space Forces, which runs the launchpad. The European Space Agency vehicle, which cost $350 million, will initially be put into the Earth's orbit. About 90 minutes later, it will be given a final push...

A beagle has survived being hit by lightning after being chained to a tree in Indiana.The bolt travelled through the metal links tethering Sport to the tree in the town of Washington.He reportedly left four black paw prints on the concrete where he was standing outside a home.His owner found him panting, bleeding from a paw and with a hot body. A trip to the vet revealed no serious injury.The lightning damaged the house belonging to Sport's owners and blew all the plugs out of their sockets.