NASA launch Mars probe project

The latest mission to search for little green men on Mars was officially launched at the National Space Centre today.

A team of Red Devils parachuted into the Leicester attraction, which is to be the control centre for the forthcoming Beagle 2 Expedition to the Red Planet.

Three thousand red balloons and a message from schoolchildren to any inhabitants of the rocky planet also made up the celebrations.

The groundbreaking space missions will be the first ever to be controlled by scientists and engineers in full view of the visiting public.

The British-led Beagle 2 Space Robot will be launched in a rocket from Kazakhstan in June and will take seven months to travel the 62,000,000 miles to Mars.

The primary scientific aim of the mission is to search for evidence of whether life may have existed or still exists on or below the surface of Mars.

Beagle 2 is an advanced space probe equipped with scientific instruments to undertake this search and explore the environment of the landing site.

Its operations will be managed by the University of Leicester team of scientists and engineers in the Lander Operations Control Centre.

The official launch of the project today attracted dozens of schoolchildren from around the area to the space centre.

The Lord Mayor of Leicester, Ramnik Kavia and his wife, as well as MP Patricia Hewitt also attended the event, which was labelled Red Leicester Day and marked the beginning of the year of Mars.

Chas Bishop, the chief executive of the National Space Centre, said: “Red Leicester Day marks the culmination of five years’ design, negotiations and planning to open a live space mission to the public.

“It is the start of a potentially momentous year for British space exploration and the race to find evidence of life on Mars.

“We are all eagerly looking forward to playing our part in this the Year of Mars.”

Beagle 2 is one of four international missions heading for the Red Planet this year and will carry the hopes of British science.