New Mars

On the United Kingdom’s first interplanetary space probe will be riding the first artwork that will travel to another world. Stuart Atkinson finds out more about the extraordinary spot painting by Damien Hirst that will be hitching a ride on the Beagle 2 lander.

Seven years after the loss of Mars 96’s inspiring and exciting collection, Art will finally have arrived on Mars.

It was a wonderful idea, both inspired and inspiring: Attach a time capsule to each of a Mars-bound probe’s pair of landers, so that the planet’s far-future inhabitants, for whom Earth would be just a bright star in the sky, could open it up and discover how we imagined their lives on the Red Planet would be…

Using a box or canister was out of the question: They weigh too much and can only contain a tiny amount of information anyway. The answer? A CD, light, durable and capable of storing a small library’s worth of material. Perfect!

No doubt remembering the importance and impact of the famous “Voyager record,” accomplished space artist Jon Lomberg co-ordinated the ambitious and visionary project, christened “Visions of Mars”, and filled the CDs with information for the colonists, settlers and explorers of the next century to enjoy. By the time the CD was full, it held the texts of more than 70 novels, short stories and articles, as well as a portion of Orson Welles’ historic “War of The Worlds” broadcast.

Eventually the task was completed. Playing the CD back (on their valuable antique CD player!), the Martians of the future would find they had stumbled upon a snapshot view of their late twentieth century ancestors’ relationship - and fascination - with Mars.

The disks also contained a variety of examples of space art depicting realistic Martian landscapes, representations of characters and scenes from Mars-inspired science fiction and more. As the rocket carrying the Russian Mars 96 probe thundered into the sky, it was watched by artists, writers and scientists, each of them wishing the rocket a heartfelt “Godspeed …”

But as we all know, the probe never reached Mars, and the hopes and dreams of all those artists, writers and scientists were lost among the stars - or, if recent reports are accurate, dashed and shattered against the rocky peaks of the Andes after the probe plummeted to Earth. The loss of the Mars 96 probe meant that none of the classic science fiction stories or works of space art were delivered to the rusted plains of Mars, and the Martians of the future were deprived of a wonderful gift from their past.

Fortunately, it now appears that future art-loving citizens of Mars will be able to show their dinner party guests some Olde Earth masterpieces after all.

In June 2003 a Soyuz/Fregat booster will thunder into the sky, and the European Space Agency’s most ambitious mission to date - “Mars Express” - will have begun. Six months later, if all goes according to plan, a small, 60 kilogram lander will fall away from the mission’s orbiter, enter the thin Martian atmosphere and, after bouncing across the rocky surface protected by Pathfinder-type airbags, come to a halt and begin its historic mission. While the orbiter studies the planet from above, using its payload of instruments to study the planet’s atmosphere, geology and structure, the “Beagle 2″ lander, named after Charles Darwin’s ship which explored uncharted lands in 1831, will be doing nothing less than searching Mars for the elixir of life: water.

After the pancake-shaped Beagle 2 unfolds its petal-like solar panels, its sophisticated cameras will take both panoramic and wide-field photographs of its surroundings. A high-powered microscope will zoom in on surface rocks, and a multi-jointed robotic arm will reach out and analyze any rock fragments within its reach, sniffing them electronically in the hope of detecting the existence of organic matter, aqueously-deposited minerals - and water itself.

Perhaps most exciting of all the Beagle 2’s instruments is its “Mole.” As the mission’s controllers hold their breath and bite their nails back on Earth, a small robot will literally detach itself from the lander’s body and wriggle across the dusty ground at a speed of six meters an hour before burrowing under nearby rocks and boulders to analyze soil samples for evidence of Martian life - any forms, long dead, or still alive - shielded from the sterilizing, Medusa-like stare of the shrunken, golden Sun.

But Beagle 2 will not just carry scientific instruments. When the little probe lands, it will also carry on its back a painting by British modern artist Damien Hirst. Seven years after the loss of Mars 96’s inspiring and exciting collection, Art will finally have arrived on Mars.

The (select adjective according to your personal opinion) well known / controversial / infamous artist’s “spot painting” will take the place of the more familiar colored “bar charts” seen on the sides of spaceprobes in the past, such as NASA’s Viking and Pathfinder. Scientists back on Earth will use Hirst’s painting as a “test card” to calibrate the probe’s cameras and imaging equipment, thus ensuring the images beamed back to Earth have the correct tones and color balance when they are reproduced for the waiting world to see.

There is another reason for sending “A Hirst” to Mars. Because the spot painting will be painted with various iron oxides and known minerals - no old off-the-shelf acrylic or oil paints for this picture - Beagle scientists will be able to use the painting to calibrate the craft’s spectrometers before they begin to analyze Martian materials. Choosing those materials is a challenge in itself - they will have to be able to survive the biting cold and high levels of ultraviolet light of the extreme Martian environment.

The artistic side of the mission has already attracted a good deal of media attention in the UK. BBC Radio 4’s influential daily news and current affairs program, “Today”, reported the story on June 17th, and on the same day the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported the story in some detail, illustrating its coverage with a colorful photograph showing a brooding Hirst and a beaming Beagle project scientist Prof. Colin Pillinger seated behind a model of the lander. Two suitably-spotted Hirst canvases were displayed in the background.

Whatever happens after Beagle 2 stops bouncing across the ruddy sands of Mars, its place in history is assured. The world will watch as its cameras return breathtaking photos, its arm picks and prods at ancient, pitted boulders and its Mole shuffles and snuffles around the lander’s feet, panting with electronic thirst. The probe might find life, it might not, but its story won’t end either way.

Years later, when the work of the machines is done, and human beings start to explore the Red Planet in person, relentlessly spreading across its face like a human tide, they will eventually find the little probe and take its psychedelic color chart back home with them to their settlement, and put it on display so that their friends, family and descendants will be able to see the first work of art to arrive on Mars.

Who knows what wonders they’ll be inspired to create themselves?

Related Articles:

Should Hirst be First? Stuart Atkinson wonders whether Damien Hirst is a fitting ambassador for the first artwork to be sent to another planet.

Related Links:

ESA Mars Express homepage: http://sci.esa.int/marsexpress/

Beagle 2 homepage: http://www.beagle2.co.uk/

Filed under: Articles on August 7th, 2001