Follow the latest news on the Beagle weblog or through the live webcast; calibration colour chart for the Beagle’s cameras was painted by Damien Hirst and the signal to be sent once the Beagle lander is safe on the surface was composed by Blur: to do space science you need the public’s interest and approval. Publicity stunts have been around for ages, but you also see the web being used increasingly to build up and maintain the public’s interest in costly technoscientific project.
I’m doing a paper on how the web is used by scientists to drum up support through public participation. A bit more interactive than just posting pressreleases on EurekAlert. Perhaps the Beagle and Mars Express thing could be a case; otherwise I’ve been working mostly with SETI@Home.
Merry Christmas! What are you doing writing on a holiday?