WA: Benedictine mission and Mars mission living side by side

AAP General News (Australia)
12-23-2003
WA: Benedictine mission and Mars mission living side by side

By Tim Clarke

PERTH, Dec 22 AAP - Australia's only monastic town will be in the prayers of some of
the world's leading scientists on Christmas Day, as it becomes a vital cog in man's quest
to find life on Mars.

The deep space ground station in New Norcia, 150km north of Perth, will play a key
role in broadcasting the European Space Agency's Beagle II lander in the final stages
of its 400 million kilometre voyage to the red planet.

Some 34 years after signals from the Apollo XI mission were first received at the Parkes
observatory in NSW, featured in the film `The Dish', another outback Australian town will
play a part in astronomical history.

The ground station's 35-metre diameter dish, supporting the 600 tonne, 130 foot high
antenna, will receive signals from the Beagle lander and the $240 million mother ship,
Mars Express.

The information that could prove that life did - or does - exist on Mars will be received
in the tiny WA town that is home to 14 Benedictine monks, as well as the $47 million intergalactic
walkie-talkie.

Station manager Roly Morin said the best Christmas present the ten-man team could receive
would be a successful landing.

"The landing is a crucial part of the puzzle. To land this barbecue kettle on Mars
would be fantastic," Mr Morin said.

"We are hoping all the equipment on the ground here functions correctly and we will
be able to relay all the commands to the orbiter."

Beagle II is named in honour of HMS Beagle, the ship that took evolutionary pioneer
Charles Darwin, on his historic five year trip around the world which concluded in 1836.

New Norcia was founded ten years later by Spanish Benedictine monk Dom Rosendo Salvado,
who turned the town into one of the most successful missions in Australian history.

A mission of an entirely different kind will centre around the WA town on December 25.

The landing of Beagle II will mark the culmination of Europe's first solo mission to
explore other planets.

Following a six-month cruise at a speed of about 10 kilometres per second, and six
days after being released from Mars Express, Beagle will descend into the Martian atmosphere
at speeds in excess of 20,000km per hour.

All being well, a parachute should open to slow the descent, followed by the inflation
of gas bags around the lander to protect its precious scientific cargo.

After coming to a bouncing halt in Isidis Planitia, a flat sedimentary basin near the
Mars equator, Beagle will then flip open, and four solar panels will flop out.

It will let the waiting world below know if the first portion of the mission has been
a success by emitting a nine-note ditty, written by Britpop band Blur.

The Beagle's robot arm, complete with seven tiny tools, will then extend to investigate
the possible past existence of water on Mars, and if there are any remains of carbon-based
lifeforms on the surface.

In overhead orbit will circulate Mars Express, packed with sensors minutely mapping
the martian surface, analysing its atmosphere and gazing beneath the surface dust and
rocks with ground-penetrating radar.

All the data will first be beamed to WA before being sent to mission control in Germany.

Mr Morin said the similarities to the movie `The Dish', were apt.

"In terms of communication, we are it really, so I think it (the film) is a good comparison,"

he said.

"Mars missions have always been regarded to be very important, but unfortunately a
lot of them do not succeed because there is so much involved. So if you have a successful
mission that is a huge step for the space industry."

New Norcia was selected above other possible southern hemisphere sites to monitor the
action millions of kilometres away, because of WA's calm weather conditions and because
it sits on the perfect latitude for deep space operations.

The sleepy nature of the surrounding countryside was also a factor, as its distance
from urban areas means no other transmission devices will disturb the satellite's transmissions.

Mr Morin said that the interaction between the church and science had been a comfortable one.

"The reason why New Norcia was selected was that they welcomed us with open arms and
did everything to have that facility there, so it was a no-brainer really," he said.

"The ESA has provided a space museum for the monks, and we give them with up-to-date
information for the museum. Other than that we co-exist."

Four people will staff the station on Christmas Day, but New Year's Day is when the
first pictures from the surface of Mars are expected to arrive.

Once again, New Norcia will be the first place on the planet they reach.

"The actual images from Mars will not be available until January 1 because it takes
so much information to make up an picture. But we are all hoping that everything goes
well," Mr Morin said.

AAP tc/hn/tma/de

KEYWORD: SCI BEAGLE (AAP BACKGROUNDER)

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