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MarsExpress Beagle2 Searching
for life on Mars… The lander of Mars Express
mission, Beagle 2, will be the smallest, most heavily instrumented soft
landing spacecraft ever produced. Beagle2 is a British-led lander of the
European Space Agency MarsExpress mission which was launched on June 2nd
2003. A few days before Christmas 2003, Beagle2 will spin off from
MarsExpress and will head to the surface. There it will remotely analyse
sub-surface soil, rock interior and atmospheric samples to address the
question… …is
there, or was there, life on Mars? Space Exploration Institute is part of the scientific team
and has delivered FM micro-cameras for Beagle 2’s robotic arm (PAW): a
stereoscopic camera composed of two identical units with 48° optics and a FM
micro-camera with specific mechanical interface to realize a microscope. |
One of
the 2 stereo micro-cameras
Microscope
micro-camera head |
