Posted by tourdemars to Mars Express at December 12, 2003 12:00 PM

The control centre is ready and a big Christmas celebration is expected when, or if, the UK's most ambitious scientific project, the Beagle 2 Mars Lander, makes landfall on Christmas Day. In true British low-budget fashion, a single Linux-based workstation at the Lander Operations Control Centre (LOCC) is being used to send commands and receive vital data from Beagle 2.