Point and shoot

Posted by tourdemars to Mars Express at December 17, 2003 12:00 PM

Any football or rugby fan knows that when a player kicks the ball, there is no longer anything they can do to influence its path. The player must trust to their own skill for the ball to reach its intended destination. What has all this to do with Mars Express? Three days from now, on 19 December 2003, Mars Express must, like an expert rugby player, ‘pass’ Beagle 2 on to the next player, Mars. The problem is that Beagle 2 has no thrusters on board, so cannot influence its own trajectory.