Honouring Bristol’s pioneering space spirit
Posted on by Fay Curtis.
A commemorative plaque honouring the groundbreaking Beagle 2 Mars mission, championed by local space scientist Professor Colin Pillinger, has been unveiled at M Shed during World Space Week.
With a team led by Professor Pillinger, the Beagle 2 lander became the first British and European spacecraft to successfully land on Mars when it touched down on Christmas Day 2003. The mission captured the public imagination with its distinctive mix of science, culture and ambition.
It was originally thought that Beagle 2 got lost on its descent to the surface of the red planet. In 2015, imagery from NASA revealed the lander had touched down safely, close to its intended target. Further analysis showed that a partially deployed solar panel had prevented communication back to Earth, confirming that the mission came very close to full operational success.
The plaque was unveiled by Shusanah Pillinger, Colin and Judith’s Bristol-born daughter, and Chris Lee, former Chief Scientist at the UK Space Agency. It forms part of a wider programme commissioned by the UK Space Agency and members of the Beagle 2 team to mark the tenth anniversary of the spacecraft’s rediscovery on the surface of Mars.
The unveiling is the first of two plaques awarded to Bristol by the UK Space Agency. A second plaque will be unveiled at Aerospace Bristol to honour the local engineering teams who helped bring the spacecraft to life.
In total, 15 red plaques have been awarded to key sites across Britain and Europe that played an important role in the mission.
Chris Lee, former Chief Scientist at the UK Space Agency, said: “It’s not every city that can claim to have a piece of technology sitting proudly on the surface of another planet. But Bristol can. It was a difficult time for the local space community in the late 1990’s but when Colin Pillinger challenged us with his vision for a unique mission, Bristol engineers stepped up and together laid the groundwork for what today has become a thriving national space exploration sector.”
The plaque will remain on display at M Shed in the Bristol People gallery on the first floor.