Towards the end of 2003, a space probe, a little bigger than a portable television, will bounce along the surface of Mars, open its solar panels and start digging. Britain is planning to send its first space probe to the red planet to discover whether there is, was or ever could be life on Mars, with a little help from the artist Damien Hirst, and the band Blur.
"The scientific discoveries from space never fail to capture the imagination and my imagination too," the Science Minister, Lord Sainsbury, said during the launch of the project at the Science Museum in London this week. Lord Sainsbury announced that the Department of Trade and Industry had pledged £5 million as part of a public/private finance programme. "It sends a message that the Government has done a scientific and technical review and recognised the importance of the mission."
The probe, named Beagle 2 after the ship on which Charles Darwin refined his theory of evolution, will land on Mars after it is parachuted through the planet's thin atmosphere. Airbags attached to the probe's shell will protect the instruments on board from a bumpy landing.
Damien Hirst and Blur will achieve a planetary first when the communications systems are tested on Mars. The probe will send a specially written Blur song back to Earth and the instruments on board will be checked before testing samples by focusing on a Hirst spot painting. After it has positioned itself safely on the surface, Beagle 2 will then unfold a series of circular solar discs and from its centre an array of scientific instruments will get to work.
One of these instruments is intended to shuffle along the rocky surface of Mars gathering soil samples, which will then be returned to the probe's laboratory for examination by the scientists at the European Space Agency. One former science and technology minister, Mr Ian Taylor, was already displaying signs of space fever this week when he spoke about the project: "We know that organisms have been hugely resilient on our planet. So why not elsewhere? One whiff of methane and we can really get excited - even if it proves to be a Blair clone."
This mission could also prove enormously beneficial in the fields of medicine, industry and the environment.
"Some people call it the baked beans test," says Prof Colin Pillinger of the Open University in London. "We will be testing for the presence of methane on the planet. It will be a global test, a simple test that everyone can understand. As methane is a by-product of living organisms, if methane is sourced somewhere on Mars it has such a short chemical lifetime that it will prove therefore that somewhere there are living organisms on Mars.
"That global test for biochemistry on Mars will just get science rushing forward because if it discovers a similar biochemistry between the two planets that will be very interesting. But if there are two close planets with different biochemistry then we have to believe that the Universe is teeming with life."
Prof Pillinger has been working on the development of the instruments which will be used on the probe and he has been helping to raise the estimated £25 million to fund the probe. As well as the government donation and smaller donations from private industry, the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council has promised £2.77 million for the project. The probe's small size will allow the European Space Agency to pack on board other instruments which can test for and source the levels of methane as a greenhouse gas. Prof Pillinger believes such a test could aid the environmental monitoring of the gas on Earth to help us understand and guard against the effects of global warming.
The European Space Agency plans to launch Beagle 2 in June 2003, when the close position of the Earth to Mars will allow the maximum payload to be carried on board with the lowest amount of fuel. The planned landing date is Boxing Day 2003, when most people will be on holiday and can tune in to television images of the historic return to Earth.
Prof Pillinger also hopes that young people will follow the plans for the mission over the next few years and consider a career in science. Science is not one of the most popular career choices for British children, but government initiatives in recent years have sought to play on the "sexy" side of science rather than the test tube and bunsen burner image that their parents grew up with. "We are hoping to build on the interest in the probe and we hope that young people will think science is a career worth following," says Prof Pillinger.