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

by Colin Pillinger

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 generati

Genres: Science, Astronomy, Nonfiction

166 pages, Hardcover

First published November 20, 2003

Reviews

[Martin Ridgway]

This was the set book for the Open University's short course "Understanding Mars", prepared in 2003 but which I took in 2005. As such it's (a) a fascinating book about the background to the mission and (b) by the time I got to read it, rather sad because the mission had failed.