International award for Beagle 2 team

The combined Beagle 2 industrial and academic team has won the 2015 Sir Arthur Clarke Award for Industry/Project Team.

The award was presented at the UK Space Conference held in Liverpool on 14 and 15 July 2015 and was received on behalf of the whole Beagle 2 team by Professor Mark Sims (formerly Beagle 2 Mission Manager) from the Department of Physics and Astronomy and Dr Jim Clemmet (former Beagle 2 Chief Engineer, now retired) of Airbus Space and Defence at the UK Space Conference dinner on 14 July.

Professor Mark Sims said: “It was a great pleasure to accept the award with Jim Clemmet on behalf of the whole Beagle 2 team. It is a great pity that Colin Pillinger who lead the Beagle 2 project, George Fraser and Dave Barnes who all sadly passed last year are not here to see the award which recognises the extraordinary efforts made by the whole team, industry and academia to design, build, test and deliver Beagle 2 to the surface of Mars.”

The Industry/Project Team award is made for significant or outstanding achievements by a team, in all space activities. This includes any activity by a commercial or government organisation that designs, manufactures, supplies or operates space systems, equipment or hardware, or supports and promotes the space industry.

The Beagle 2 Mars Lander, thought lost since 2003, was identified partially deployed on the surface of Mars earlier this year by images taken by the HiRISE camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).

• More information is available here
• The presentations from the Beagle 2 session at the UK Space Conference are available here
• Press Release

Watch a video of Professor Mark Sims discussing the discovery of Beagle 2 on Mars: