The UK's Beagle 2 spacecraft will land on Isidis Planita on Mars in December 2003, the European Space Agency (ESA) has announced.
The $40 million Beagle 2, which is almost 50% funded by ESA, will be launched piggyback on the ESA Mars Express orbiter.
Isidis Planita appears to be a sedimentary basin and the "best site given the landing constraints and scientific aims of Beagle 2", says John Bridges of London's Natural History Museum.
Isidis lies between 5° and 20°N. The landing site is located close to 10°N, which will be warm enough in the Martian spring when Beagle is due to land, and without too many rocks to spoil the landing.
The site, in an area about 500km (310 miles) long by 100km wide, was selected from high resolution images taken by NASA's Mars Global Surveyor orbiter. Other potential sights were eliminated because they would be too cold for the craft's instruments, too rocky or too steep.
• NASA has exercised a $68 million contract option with Boeing for the Delta II launch of the second Mars Exploration Rover in June/July 2003. The Mars Expedition Rover 1 launch had already been assigned for another NASA 2003 Mars mission which was cancelled after a restructure of the agency's Mars programme.
Source: Flight International
