At art school we were encouraged to break boundaries and very quickly we were looking beyond the studio as a place for artistic creativity. I found myself delving into worlds as diverse as medicine, biology, zoos, advertising, animatronics, music etc ... but Mars? Not in my wildest dreams would I have thought about making an artwork that would actually travel to the red planet. ~ Damien Hirst, May 1999.
source: beagle2.com
Royal Society New Frontiers in Science:
The Beagle 2 exhibit combined science, art and many opportunities to tell the public, invited school students and Royal Society invitees about the project. The display included the original watercolour of HMS Beagle, painted by Owen Stanley FRS in 1841, which took Charles Darwin on his epic journey, on loan for the duration of the exhibition from the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. Behind the rock strewn table were the two paintings by Damien Hirst. One, called Beagle 2 featured an image of the lander amongst the spots, the other, Red Planet, was a single red spot, with butterflies, signifying Mars. A plasma screen showed the computer animation of the landing and deployment of instruments.
No bark heard from Beagle 2 probe:
The British-built Mars probe Beagle 2 has failed to call Earth, dashing hopes that its mothership Mars Express would establish contact with the robot. Wednesday's bid to reach Beagle with its mothership was considered the best hope of locating the missing lander. At a news conference held at 1500 GMT in Darmstadt, Germany, Professor David Southwood, head of science at the European Space Agency (Esa), gave journalists the sad announcement. «We did not get any content of a signal or indeed a signal from the surface of Mars,» he said.
sources: beagle2.com, bbc.co.uk