The National Audit Office has reported on UK Space activities. The glossy executive summary talks of the need for a “more consistent approach to the analysis of the risks”.
Meanwhile, the story that B2 may have been spotted on Mars is dismissed by CP as noise in the image. The current theory is that B2 was going too fast when it hit the thinner than expected Martian atmosphere. Another avenue of investigation is an anomaly in an image of B2 as it separated from Mars Express. “The bright object and the glint on the side of Beagle 2 may be nothing, they may be everything”.
And the hunt for Beagle 1 has focused on 8ft of mud in the Essex marshes. “For the latter part of its life, the Beagle lived modestly as a coastguard watch vessel in Essex to combat gangs of smugglers in the Southend Coastguard District”.
Great news: There are plans to relaunch B2 in 2007. Bad news for the guy who registered beagle3.com on Christmas day: the project will keep the B2 name.
It seems I’m part of the Beagle generation: Britons who back greater investment in space research.