The Beagle 2 lands

(Photograph) - Pounds 5 million for Mars trip n The Beagle 2 Mars Lander project, championed by the Open University's Colin Pillinger (below), has received Pounds 5 million from the government's latest Pounds 19.5 million space fund.

Due to be launched in 2003 on the European Space Agency's Mars Express mission, Beagle 2 will be used to establish the processes that take place on the planet's surface and whether life has ever exisited there. Beagle 2 requires Pounds 28 million and Professor Pillinger has raised Pounds 21 million, including the government's Pounds 5 million and Pounds 3 million from the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council.