The Beagle has Landed

LONDON,
Dec. 19 Europe’s first attempt to land an unmanned probe on Mars entered
its final phase on Friday when a disc-shaped landing craft named Beagle
II separated from the Mars Express spaceship and began a series of maneuvers
to orbit the red planet before bouncing onto the surface early on Christmas
Day.

The Beagle II is named for the ship that took Charles Darwin around
the world, but British tabloids have already engaged in some space age
wordplay on the 1969 American moon landing, announcing with pride, "The
Beagle Has Landed."

If it survives the descent and landing, the Beagle II is designed to
pop open, raise its solar panels and, eventually, use robotic arms
and a collection of sniffers, spectrometers and digging devices to
search for signs of carbon, water or bacteria on and beneath the surface
of Mars.

from the
New York Times