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Why is it called Beagle 2? |
Beagle 2 is named after the ship HMS Beagle, in which Charles
Darwin sailed to Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. On his return,
he wrote "On the Origin of Species".
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Do you expect to find life on Mars? |
Experiments have been done on meteorites from Mars, which
have shown the possibility of nano-bacteria. The results
are tantalisingly ambiguous and going to Mars to perform
the same experiments is necessary to eliminate the possibility
that the meteorites had been contaminated during their time
on Earth.
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How long will the project last? |
The Beagle 2 mission was first proposed in 1997. 6 years
later and after design, build and test phases, launch and
a journey of 250 million miles the lander will touch down
on the surface of the Red Planet.
Beagle 2's antipicated working lifetime is 180 Mars solar
days (sols). A sol is considered to have a length of 24.6
hours, which gives us an answer of 184.5 Earth days, just
over 6 months.
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What went wrong with Beagle 2? |
Until recently the team has been concentrating all efforts on positive
actions to try and communicate with Beagle 2. As well as continuing to
exhaust all such efforts, a lengthy investigation will begin shortly into possible
reasons why the lander may have failed. Results from this enquiry will be made public.
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