Posted by tourdemars to Mars Express at September 10, 2002 12:00 PM

EDS today announced its collaborative product development product lifecycle management (PLM) software has driven the design of the Entry, Descent and Lander System (EDLS) for the Beagle 2 Mars lander, which will carry the principal experiments payload in next year’s European Space Agency Mars Express space mission. The Mars Express spacecraft is scheduled to blast off from Baikonur, in Kazakhstan, in May 2003 atop a Soyuz/Fregat rocket for its six month journey to the red planet. On board the Mars Express will be the Beagle 2 lander, named to celebrate Charles Darwin’s voyage, which led to the writing of On The Origin Of Species. Beagle 2’s mission is to search for signs of life on Mars and to conduct geochemical/atmospheric analyses. Beagle 2 is a UK-led project operating as a joint academia/industry consortium and is steered through the mutual cooperation of the Open University, the University of Leicester and Astrium Limited -- formerly known as Matra Marconi Space (UK).