Beagle 2

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“Mars Express launched from Baikonur on 2 June 2003, at 17:45 UTC (18:45 BST). Beagle 2 was a Mars lander initially mounted on the top deck of the Mars Express Orbiter. It was released from the Orbiter on a ballistic trajectory towards Mars on 19 December 2003 at 8:31 UT. Beagle 2 coasted for six days after release and was scheduled to enter the Martian atmosphere, at over 20,000 km/h, on the morning of 25 December.”

From <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beagle_2>

bgl-2Beagle 2 employed the ERC32 spacecraft microprocessor. This was chosen for its low power consumption and its ability to survive in space. The two software systems, the entry descent and landing system and the ground phase were programmed in Ada 95 and built using XGC’s ERC32 Ada compiler.

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