Committee: Lack Of Funding Killed ESA Mars Probe

A British government report on the crash of the ESA's Mars Lander, Beagle II, says the project was so underfunded that it was little more than an "amateurish gentleman's agreement."

Beagle II was lost after it detached from its mothership, Mars Express, and impacted the surface of Mars last Christmas. The British Parliament's Science and Technology Committee slammed both the U

K government and the European Space Agency (ESA) for financially starving the project.

"ESA and the UK wanted a Mars lander on the cheap. As a result, the scientists had to go chasing celebrities for sponsorship when they might have been testing rockets," said committee chairman Ian Gibson. He was quoted in the UK Guardian newspaper.

Beagle II carried a painting by Damien Hurst for use in calibrating its cameras. The lander was supposed to signal touchdown with a riff from the rock band Blur.

In the end, the committee report said, the lack of structure in the project allowed a key financial backer, Martin-Baker Aircraft, to simply pull out of the consortium without penalty. Struggling to stay afloat, the Beagle II team paid more than $426,000 to marketing agencies in hopes of landing a sponsor, but received nothing in return.

In the end, Britain's Science Ministry bailed the project out with more than $40 million in British tax revenue.

The Beagle II team, however, led by Professor Colin Pillinger of the Open University, rejected outright the committee's characterization of its activities.

"It wasn't amateurish. How else do you get a group of people together when you haven't got a budget to offer them a contract?" asked Pillinger.

FMI: www.esa.int/esaCP/index.html