Welsh hopes aboard Mars probe

The mission should land on Mars on Christmas Day

A space probe carrying Welsh machinery has blasted off to Mars without a hitch.

Scientists from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, built a robotic arm which will form a crucial part of the Beagle 2 mission as it searches for life on the planet.

The Mars Express probe, which is carrying the Beagle 2 lander, launched smoothly on schedule from Kazakhstan at 1845 BST on Monday as it began its six-month journey.

The arm - made of titanium and carbon fibre - will enable the mission to carry out experiments, including analysis of soil and rock samples.

The 400-million-kilometre (250 million miles) trip should see Beagle transmit its first signal from the surface of the Red Planet on Christmas Day.

The mission is Europe's first solo enterprise to another planet.

The journey to Mars is hazardous in itself. not least the risks at lift-off and landing

Dr David Barnes, Space Robotics Group

Scientists and guests gathered at the BT Centre in London clapped and cheered as the four stage rocket blasted off.

A giant screen in the auditorium showed the rocket enveloped by a ball of flame before lifting off into a clear sky.

The viewers continued to watch as the first three stages separated and Mars Express shrank to the size of a bright dot.

Professor John Zarnecki, part of the Beagle 2 team, said he was pleased with the launch but added there was a long way to go before the probe reached its destination.

"Inside I was feeling incredibly nervous, but so far, as far as we can tell, everything looks fantastic," he said.

Professor Colin Pillinger, who is leading the Beagle 2 project, said they were hoping to prove that minerals found in meteorites showed there was some organic matter on Mars.

"The only way we can do this is go back to Mars and do the experiment there to rule out the possibility of terrestrial contamination," he said.

He added they hoped to find the waste products of biology in the atmosphere, which would tell whether there was life there.

The robotic arm will be tested in severe Martian conditions

When Beagle 2 lands, the robotic arm will be operated by the Space Robotics Group at the Department of Computer Science at University of Wales, Aberystwyth.

The group will be based at the National Space Centre in Leicester for the duration of the mission which will last for six months after landing on Mars.

The robotic arm will have to contend with Martian conditions that can be quite severe, with dust storms featuring wind speeds up to 30 metres per second.

Temperatures on the Red Planet can range from minus100 degrees Celsius at night to just below freezing during the day.

"The journey to Mars is hazardous in itself. not least the risks at lift-off and landing," said Dr David Barnes, who runs the Aberystwyth team

Information from the Mars project will be fed into other research programmes at Aberystwyth where the group will look at how future robots could diagnose and repair their own damage.

The Aberystwyth team features in a two-part documentary on the Beagle 2 project which is to be screened on BBC2 at 1120 BST on 2 and 3 June.