Mission to Mars from Milton Keynes With the help of Damien Hirst and the Saatchis, Britain is to send its first probe to the surface of another planet

From: The Sunday Telegraph London | Date: March 3, 2002| Author: | Copyright information

THE MAN most likely to answer the question "Is there life on Mars?" is not a Nasa scientist in a Houston laboratory but a 58-year- old, wild-haired professor who keeps cows on a farm in Cambridgeshire.

Prof Colin Pillinger is the mastermind behind Britain's first space probe, Beagle 2, which is due to land on Mars on December 23, 2003, and spend six months analysing Martian rocks, soil and gases for signs that the planet ever supported life.

It is only Prof Pillinger's enthusiasm and implacable faith that have turned into reality his academic obsession with the search for life on Mars. He is a ...

Read all of this article with a FREE trial to HighBeam Research

Related newspaper, magazine, and trade journal articles from HighBeam Research

(Including press releases, facts, information, and biographies)

The space probe's lethal cargo. (NASA is planning to launch space shuttles carrying large amounts of plutonium 238) (editorial)
; THE SPACE PROBE'S LETHAL CARGO Two years ago on January...and another in 1990, each carrying a space probe utilizing what scientists have called...fatal case of lung cancer. The 1989 space probe, Project Galileo, is to contain 49...
First Venus space probe takes off.
; EUROPE'S first space probe to earth's closest neighbour Venus was launched today from Kazakhstan on a 163-day journey. The 1.3-tonne probe took off from Baikonur at 3am on board a Soyuz rocket. The start of the mission had been delayed for two weeks.
VOYAGER SPACE PROBE ALTERS COURSE TO AVOID DEBRIS ORBITING NEPTUNE
; PASADENA, Calif. - The Voyager 2 space probe fired its thrusters yesterday on instruction from scientists...with minor course corrections later, will bring the durable space probe within 3,100 miles of cloud tops above Neptune's north pole...
Space Probe Detects Life on Earth
; ...this item from the weeks news. A story of wonder and discovery as an interplanetary space probe searches the solar system for evidence of life. The space probe is the Galileo, which is on its way to Jupiter now, and expected to arrive there in...
Fed: Parkes and Canberra to help in space probe
; 00-00-0000 Fed: Parkes and Canberra to help in space probe CANBERRA, Sept 6 AAP - The Parkes Observatory made famous...landing is to be upgraded and used to help NASA's deep space probe next year. The observatory, plus Canberra's tracking station...
Space Probe grounded
; The Wizard's Inner Space Probe has been shown the back door by a coy Christchurch City Council...to provide $18,000 to conduct a feasibility study on his Inner Space Probe. The innovative, interactive sculpture took the form of a 10m...
Space probe finds first evidence of ice on comets
; LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The Deep Impact space probe found the first evidence that comets have ice on their dusty...online edition of the journal Science. The copper-tipped space probe collided with comet Tempel 1 about 83 million miles from...
The magic circle ; Spinning through space like a monstrous copper choker, Saturn's rings have fascinated astronomers for centuries. Now, thanks to the Cassini space probe, we are finally able to see them in all their glorious detail
; ...images of the rings around Saturn with the help of the Cassini space probe, as it climbed to higher and higher inclinations in its orbit...planet. The images were taken over the past two months as the space probe crossed the disc-like plane of the rings, which are believed...
Space probe in contact.(News)
; Radio contact has been regained with the pounds600million Soho Sun space probe. Data from the US space-craft had been revolutionising our view of the Sun with the discovery of solar quakes and tornadoes. Scientists...
US, EUROPE PLAN SPACE PROBE TO TITAN
; PARIS - Europe and the United States plan to send a space probe to Titan, the solar system's biggest moon and the only one with an atmosphere much like primordial Earth's, the European Space...