Beagle: From Darwin's Epic Voyage to the British Mission to Mars [Hardcover]

‘Watch out NASA. The British are coming.’

Britain is going to Mars. Beagle 2 - a space lander shaped like a clam and no larger than a portable barbecue - is about to make history. Named after HMS Beagle, the ship in which Charles Darwin travelled around the world, Beagle 2 has hitched a ride aboard the European Space Agency Mars Express. On reaching the red planet, this tiny British space probe is designed to answer one big question: is there, or was there, life on Mars? In 'Beagle', Colin Pillinger explores the remarkable similarities between these two historic ships, the sailing ship and the spaceship, and their great voyages of exploration. Both were at the forefront of technology for their respective generations. HMS Beagle led to the discovery of the secret of life on Earth - can Beagle 2 possibly do the same for Mars?

'We are on our way to Mars, and no one can take that away from us . . .'

Britain is going to Mars. Beagle 2 - a space lander shaped like a clam and no larger than a portable barbecue - is about to make history. Named after HMS Beagle, the ship in which Charles Darwin travelled around the world, Beagle 2 has hitched a ride aboard the European Space Agency Mars Express. On reaching the red planet, this tiny British space probe is designed to answer one big question: is there, or was there, life on Mars?

'It is quite remarkable how little has changed in terms of exploring a planet, whether it be Earth or Mars, in 170 odd years . . .'

In ‘Beagle’, Colin Pillinger explores the remarkable similarities between these two historic ships, the sailing ship and the spaceship, and their great voyages of exploration. Both were at the forefront of technology for their respective generations. HMS Beagle led to the discovery of the secret of life on Earth - can Beagle 2 possibly do the same for Mars?

'There was nothing I wouldn't have done to raise money for Beagle . . .'

Professor Colin Pillinger conceived the Beagle 2 lander project back in 1997, and as consortium leader and lead scientist he has been involved in all stages of design, building and testing of the spacecraft. A tireless advocate for this remarkable mission, he is uniquely qualified to explore the background to this extraordinary bid to land on Mars - and explain how he enlisted the help of not only countless scientists and engineers, but also the rock band Blur and the artist Damien Hirst.

Professor Colin Pillinger, CBE, FRS, is Head of the Planetary and Space Sciences Research Institute at the Open University. His particular expertise is studying extraterrestrial samples, either in the laboratory or on space missions.

[From The Preface to ‘Beagle’]

The name Beagle 2 was chosen for the spacecraft which carries Britain’s hopes to discover life on Mars by my wife Judith during a journey back from Paris in April 1997. I had just attended the European Space Agency’s meeting to discuss the possibility of a mission to the red planet called Mars Express and had suggested the project should include a lander. I needed a landing spacecraft to see whether work carried out on meteorites from Mars was correct in predicting that life on a second planet in the solar system was possible; the meteorite samples might even have already revealed its presence but for such a momentous claim we had to be sure. The experiments had to be repeated on Mars.

Only hours earlier I had been asked who would pay for a martian lander and who would develop it? It was pretty clear that ESA did not have the resources and they thought no one else did either. I had said it was too good a chance to miss, someone will pay. If I was going to raise the funds from sources other than the usual ones we realised we would need a name that was instantly recognisable. HMS Beagle was the ship that had taken Charles Darwin around the world and led to his writing ‘On the Origin of the Species’; it is one of the most well-known ship names. Her voyage led to the discovery of the secret of life on Earth, could we do the same for Mars? We decided then and there to honour the ship, the vehicle which made Darwin’s contributions possible. So Beagle it would be for the spacecraft.