At a few minutes to midnight tonight scientists involved with Beagle 2 will be waiting anxiously to see if the first firing of a Soyuz rocket with a Fregat upper stage will be successful. In June 2003 this combination will be the one that carries the European Space Agency's Mars Express, and hence Beagle 2, to Mars to search for evidence of life on the red planet. The arrangement that ESA has with Starsem (see link on the right), the commercial organisation responsible for Soyuz Fregat flight, is that they have to complete four successful launches to capture the Mars Express contract.

Tonight's launch is of double interest to the Open University. The spacecraft which the Soyuz Fregat will take to orbit is a revolutionary new inflatable re-entry vehicle. The OU has hitched a ride for the second "Flying Stones" experiment, designed to help identify martian meteorites by studying how materials are altered during the re-entry process. Thus on the heat shield of the re-entry vehicle are a number of terrestrial rocks which will be investigated mineralogically and geochemically after being heated to over a thousand degrees during their passage through the Earth's atmosphere. The whole mission will take only about six hours. The launched spacecraft will make five orbits of the Earth, and the last but one over Britain around 5.00am and could be visible if the sky is clear, before crashing back to land in the Samara-Orenburg region of Siberia. The weather forecast for the landing site is today snow, tomorrow - more snow; 1.6 metres already to break the capsule's fall.

Tonight's mission can be followed on the DASA web site www.return-home.com. For further information on Beagle 2 and "Flying Stones" please contact:

Professor Colin Pillinger FRS
Planetary Sciences Research Institute
The Open University
Milton Keynes MK7 6AA

telephone +44 (0) 1908 652119 / 655169
fax +44 (0) 1908 655910
email psri@open.ac.uk
Web page http://www.beagle2.com

Yesterday in London an announcement was made that M&C Saatchi Sponsorship Ltd, part of M&C Saatchi Worldwide, has joined with Beagle 2 to co-ordinate the commercial development of the project.

A press briefing will be held at the London Office of M&C Saatchi on 25 January to hear an announcement that M&C Saatchi Sponsorship Ltd, part of M&C Saatchi Worldwide, has joined with Beagle 2, the space mission to put Britain on Mars in 2003 and answer the question is there, or was there, life on Mars?

At the briefing the Agency will outline the commercial potential of the project and the Lead Scientist Professor Colin Pillinger will give an update on the science and technology of the project. The briefing will end will a photocall as the involvement of M&C Saatchi Sponsorship in Beagle 2 is formalised.

Professor Pillinger says "The project now needs to finalise some interesting possibilities to secure the balance of funding necessary to get us to Mars. The time has come for the real professionals to move the project onto a firm financial footing. We are delighted that M&C Saatchi are joining us in this venture and look forward to a productive collaboration".

Matthew Patten, Chief Executive of M&C Saatchi Sponsorship, said: "We are thrilled to be working with Professor Pillinger's team on such a momentous project."

Notes to Editors

1. Support for Beagle 2 has come from the participating organisations in Universities and Industry. Lord Sainsbury announced a package of £8million from the DTI and PPARC in August .
2. M&C Saatchi Sponsorship Ltd was founded in January 1997. The company is a subsidiary of M&C Saatchi, the UK's 6th biggest advertising agency and 1999 Agency of the Year with offices in New York, Los Angeles, Sydney, Melbourne, Auckland, Hong Kong, Madrid and Dubai. M&C Saatchi was founded by Maurice and Charles Saatchi, Bill Muirhead, David Kershaw and Jeremy Sinclair.
3. M&C Saatchi Sponsorship's activities include the creation, management and exploitation of sponsorship in sports, arts, community, broadcast and press. Clients include Benson & Hedges, Channel 4, NatWest Card Services and Unilever. M&C Saatchi clients include British Airways, BT, Dixons Group, Sainsburys and Rover Cars.

During the coming week (3-4 August 1999) the Science Museum, South Kensington, London will host separate opportunities for the press and public to see Beagle 2, the British lander which will land on Mars and search for signs of life.

On Tuesday 3rd August, Beagle 2 will be on show during the presentation of the Space Strategy by the Science Minister to an invited audience from industry, academia and the media (see Note 2 below). This occasion is expected to be the time when the Minister officially states his policy concerning Beagle 2.

On Wednesday 4th August, the full size model of Beagle 2 will be on show to the public in the Space Gallery of the Science Museum (see Note 3 below). Professor Colin Pillinger FRS, the lead scientist of the Beagle 2 project and other members of his team, will be on hand to explain the science and technology behind the mission.

Notes to Editors:

1. Beagle 2 will be launched in June 2003 as part of the European Space Agency (ESA) Mars Express Mission. As Mars Express approaches Mars at the end of 2003, Beagle 2 will be ejected from the orbiter and land on the surface of the planet. The instrument package on board Beagle 2 will analyse samples of martian rock, soil and atmosphere to seek for signs or past or present life on the planet. For further information on Beagle 2 please contact:

   Professor Colin Pillinger FRS
   Planetary Sciences Research Institute
   The Open University
   Milton Keynes MK7 6AA
   

   telephone +44 (0) 1908 652119 / 655169
   fax +44 (0) 1908 655910
   email psri@open.ac.uk
   Web page http://Beagle2.open.ac.uk

2. On Tuesday August 3rd at 10 am the Science Minister, Lord Sainsbury, will present the Space Strategy to an audience from industry, academic and the media. For more information please contact: British National Space Centre, Information Centre, Tel: 0171 215 0807 Media representatives should contact: Denise Horne, DTI Press Office, Tel: 0171 215 5377
3. For information about the public display of Beagle 2 in the Space Gallery of the Science Museum on Wednesday August 4th (opening hours 10 am to 6 pm) please contact: Rebecca Marshall, Science Museum, Exhibition Rd, London SW7 2DD Tel: 0207 942 4819; Fax: 0207 942 4826 or Harriet Wood, Science Museum Press Office Tel: 0207 942 4357; Fax: 0207 942 4351

When Beagle 2 lands on Mars to search for signs of past life its cameras will focus on some very British spots. Artist Damien Hirst has joined the Beagle 2 team to provide an image on the lander which will serve as the calibration target for the on-board cameras and spectrometers.

Professor Colin Pillinger, lead scientist of the Beagle 2 project, announcing Damien Hirst's involvement, said:

"Beagle 2 is a project that we can all be proud to be part of. It represents the very best of science and engineering and will put Britain on the map of Mars at the beginning of the new millennium. I wanted to extend the involvement beyond the engineers and scientists who will get the spacecraft safely onto the surface and design and direct the crucial experiments to answer the question are we alone in the Universe?"

"It is exciting to be able to include an artistic aspect. In fairness to the many scientists worldwide who would love to have their own experiment on Mars, any additional payload could not require significant mass or power, both of which are very limited on Beagle 2. Damien's contribution will fulfil some essential scientific roles for example calibrating cameras and various spectrometers. For negligible impact on resources we can display contemporary art on the surface of the planet."

Damien Hirst issued the following press release:

When I was first asked to get involved in the Beagle 2 project I was expecting Jeremy Beadle to walk through the door dressed as a Martian, but after meeting Colin Pillinger and his wife I got very excited by the project.

At art school we were encouraged to break boundaries and very quickly we were looking beyond the studio as a place for artistic creativity. I found myself delving into worlds as diverse as medicine, biology, zoos, advertising, animatronics, music etc... but Mars ? Not in my wildest dreams would I have thought about making an artwork that would actually travel to the red planet.

The most exciting aspect of the project for me is working within the strict parameters enforced by weight and mass requirements, and budget (I believe that most of the people involved at this point are working for free). I would always naturally choose function over aesthetics so at the moment I'm thinking towards creating a spot painting that will be able to withstand the extreme thermal and light conditions on the planet and also be used to calibrate the Beagle 2's instruments.

It's a pleasure to work with a British team as the newspapers are mostly filled with American space missions. It's great to be asked to help make this dream a reality. I mean it's quite simply out of this world !

Damien Hirst May 1999

Alongside the futuristic, but actual-size model of Beagle 2 lander, which will hitch a ride aboard the ESA Mars Express Mission to Mars in 2003 are two very different artistic contributions. This cross-culture support reflects the public interest behind the British space project to answer the question - is there, was there, or could there have been, life on Mars?

Damien Hirst has produced the two large canvasses displayed by the Beagle model specifically to support the exhibit. The spot painting theme will be the basis of the image that Damien is developing as part of the lander. Not only will he send an original work of art to the surface of Mars but this will provide the scientists with a valuable test card against which to calibrate cameras and instruments. The media preview (16 June, 9.00 am) offers an opportunity to discuss Damien Hirst's involvement in putting Britain on the map - of Mars

The original watercolour of HMS Beagle, the ship in which Charles Darwin sailed, was painted by Owen Stanley FRS in the 19th century and is on loan from the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, for the duration of the Exhibition. The painting is in the reserve collection of the NMM and not normally on display so we are especially pleased to be granted permission to include it alongside Beagle 2.

Notes:

1. Last week we announced that Damien Hirst has joined the Beagle 2 team to provide an image on the lander which will serve as the calibration target for the on-board cameras and spectrometers.
2. The target will allow the cameras to be calibrated against both black and white, grey and colours particularly various shades of red. By using various iron oxides and known minerals the Mossbauer and X-ray spectrometers can use the same materials. Other possibilities for incorporation into the target spot painting will be investigated.