It's great to hear that the UK is excited about the Beagle 2. After many years, the Sun once again doesn't set on the British Empire, since she was launched, get the word out if you can, its something the whole world is rooting for (well at least we are here in Mexico). :)
I read your letter (the link), and just want to comment that it is wonderful, except the following passage, which I found reaking of arrogance, not pride, in your enthusiasm:
"Your 20th century predecessors, dramatically christened Viking and Pathfinder, were both bigger and more expensive than you too, but don't you let that worry or intimidate you either. You may only be small, barely larger than a bicycle wheel in fact, but you're nothing like those bulky, boxy robot laboratories. Compared to them you're an elegant marriage of origami and engineering, far more like a pocket-watch than a robot, and trust me, you're going to earn more pages in the astronomy history books than Viking and Pathfinder put together."
Beagle should not be taught to belittle her predecessors. Beagle should be consoled, if that is your desire, by humility and deference to greatness, because whether the apple falls down on Newton's head or successfully on Mars, she will be able to see further if and only if, like Newton, she has stood on the shoulders of giants. Hooke was an Englishman. Viking and Pathfinder are giants. Hopefully, the dog she is, she will be humankind's loyal and trustworthy servant. Beagle has only to do what she was set out to do and she will be the junior member of the club of giants, whether she finds life or not. There is no performance anxiety here, just a blessing for a successful voyage.
You seem quite devoted to the Beagle 2 program, which makes me happy.
I was wondering if you knew why she was named the Beagle 2, and not simply Beagle. Is it because this ship is the HMS Beagle is currently commissioned:
http://www.navynews.co.uk/ships/beagle.asp
According to Royal Navy Records, the Mars probe should be the Beagle 10 (Where Darwin's ship was the 3rd HMS Beagle), since names are recycled. Right? I wonder why they didn't name her the Bulldog, since that was the Beagle's partner recently decommissioned.
It is great to see the ESA is trying even in a modest and positive way to give NASA a little run for the money. At the moment NASA is far to complacent and lacks the charismatic teflon heros the US has so often produced, in administration to match its scientific potential. This mission is probably more important politically, as an impetous, than scientifically in my opinion...not to lose sight of its solid scientific worth...and setting up the Beagle mission as a failure if it doesn't live up to expectations to prove life really underestimates the worth of the information Beagle will develop. Columbus and the Vikings, like Viking first ventured into a new world. Do you know the name of the person who first recognized that it was actually a new people? So, Trust me (as you say to Beagle), we are not alone. Life has existed and evolved in countless worlds throughout the universe, and to believe differently, would be folly. Beagle will be successful if she powers up safely and studies the interesting samples for her masters. Discovering life would be a wonderful, but if she doesn't I will cherish every byte she sends just the same. And I expect a Beagle Byte's worth of information.
Saludos
Doug Dawbn
Mexico
En un mensaje con fecha 12/18/2003 11:48:38 PM Mexico Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] escribe:
Asunto: Re: [meteorite-list] Christmas Day Mars Landing (Beagle 2)
Fecha: 12/18/2003 11:48:38 PM Mexico Standard Time
De: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Para: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Enviado por Internet
Hi,
Here in the UK anticipation is building up in advance of Beagle 2's separation from the MARS EXPRESS orbiter later today. Beagle 2 is only small - same diameter as a bicycle wheel in fact - but it's packed with science instruments. With two out of every three probes sent to Mars so far failing, my fingers are crossed so tightly they're going white...
If anyone's really bored they can read a piece I've written about Beagle on www.newmars.com.
Go Beagle...! :-) (and good luck to the twin MERs, following close behind, too!)
Stu
