Beagle 2 Yahoo Group

Well - apart from myself and David Entwistle, I'm sure SOMEone in here is a
'fan' of the Beagle 2 mission.


Seing as there is some strange aversion to informing the public about Beagle
2 via it's own website - I set up a Yahoo group where hopefully - anyone
finding something around the world-wide-wibble can post etc.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/beagle2

Nothing there at the moment - but hopefully over time we can collect links,
images etc to hopefully sptread the good word!!

Doug

"Doug Ellison" wrote in message
...
Well - apart from myself and David Entwistle, I'm sure SOMEone in here is
a
'fan' of the Beagle 2 mission.


Seing as there is some strange aversion to informing the public about
Beagle
2 via it's own website - I set up a Yahoo group where hopefully - anyone
finding something around the world-wide-wibble can post etc.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/beagle2

Nothing there at the moment - but hopefully over time we can collect
links,
images etc to hopefully sptread the good word!!

Doug

I doubt it. What I don't get with Beagle 2 is the lack of promo stuff.
Where are the T-shirts, the kids stuff etc.? Just look back to the Sojurner
mission, they even made a kiddies toy of the rover. All respect to Pilinger
and crew on getting Beagle 2 launched, but he should have taken a few
lessons off of Richard Noble for promoting a cause.

Martin

"Doug Ellison" wrote in message
...
Well - apart from myself and David Entwistle, I'm sure SOMEone in here is
a
'fan' of the Beagle 2 mission.


Seing as there is some strange aversion to informing the public about
Beagle
2 via it's own website - I set up a Yahoo group where hopefully - anyone
finding something around the world-wide-wibble can post etc.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/beagle2

Nothing there at the moment - but hopefully over time we can collect
links,
images etc to hopefully sptread the good word!!

Doug

I doubt it. What I don't get with Beagle 2 is the lack of promo stuff.
Where are the T-shirts, the kids stuff etc.? Just look back to the Sojurner
mission, they even made a kiddies toy of the rover. All respect to Pilinger
and crew on getting Beagle 2 launched, but he should have taken a few
lessons off of Richard Noble for promoting a cause.

Martin

In message , Martin
writes

"Doug Ellison" wrote in message
...
Well - apart from myself and David Entwistle, I'm sure SOMEone in here is
a
'fan' of the Beagle 2 mission.


Seing as there is some strange aversion to informing the public about
Beagle
2 via it's own website - I set up a Yahoo group where hopefully - anyone
finding something around the world-wide-wibble can post etc.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/beagle2

I doubt it. What I don't get with Beagle 2 is the lack of promo stuff.
Where are the T-shirts, the kids stuff etc.? Just look back to the Sojurner
mission, they even made a kiddies toy of the rover. All respect to Pilinger
and crew on getting Beagle 2 launched, but he should have taken a few
lessons off of Richard Noble for promoting a cause.

Where's the fold-up card model? I was at the Festival of Space in
Guildford last month. Astrium had a nice display with a full size model
of Beagle 2 (blatant plug - pictures on my web site) and asked them that
question, and it seems they don't have the rights to the design, or
something. The damn thing is _made_ for a cut-out model you could put on
the back of a cereal package, or a more sophisticated set like the ones
from Space Craft Models, and they aren't doing it.
Considering that it was supposed to be paid for by sponsorship, and that
the taxpayers would probably be interested, that seems odd.

--
"Roads in space for rockets to travel....four-dimensional roads, curving with
relativity"
Mail to jsilverlight AT merseia.fsnet.co.uk is welcome.
Or visit Jonathan's Space Site http://www.merseia.fsnet.co.uk

In message , Martin
writes

"Doug Ellison" wrote in message
...
Well - apart from myself and David Entwistle, I'm sure SOMEone in here is
a
'fan' of the Beagle 2 mission.


Seing as there is some strange aversion to informing the public about
Beagle
2 via it's own website - I set up a Yahoo group where hopefully - anyone
finding something around the world-wide-wibble can post etc.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/beagle2

I doubt it. What I don't get with Beagle 2 is the lack of promo stuff.
Where are the T-shirts, the kids stuff etc.? Just look back to the Sojurner
mission, they even made a kiddies toy of the rover. All respect to Pilinger
and crew on getting Beagle 2 launched, but he should have taken a few
lessons off of Richard Noble for promoting a cause.

Where's the fold-up card model? I was at the Festival of Space in
Guildford last month. Astrium had a nice display with a full size model
of Beagle 2 (blatant plug - pictures on my web site) and asked them that
question, and it seems they don't have the rights to the design, or
something. The damn thing is _made_ for a cut-out model you could put on
the back of a cereal package, or a more sophisticated set like the ones
from Space Craft Models, and they aren't doing it.
Considering that it was supposed to be paid for by sponsorship, and that
the taxpayers would probably be interested, that seems odd.

--
"Roads in space for rockets to travel....four-dimensional roads, curving with
relativity"
Mail to jsilverlight AT merseia.fsnet.co.uk is welcome.
Or visit Jonathan's Space Site http://www.merseia.fsnet.co.uk

I doubt it. What I don't get with Beagle 2 is the lack of promo stuff.
Where are the T-shirts, the kids stuff etc.? Just look back to the
Sojurner
mission, they even made a kiddies toy of the rover. All respect to
Pilinger
and crew on getting Beagle 2 launched, but he should have taken a few
lessons off of Richard Noble for promoting a cause.

Martin



I suggested EXACTLY what Noble did to Pillinger himself at the OU Open day
about 18 months ago.

Noble had the Mach 1 supporters club - for a couple of dozen quid, you got
to go to open days to the building of thrust ssc, got newsletters ( now
collectors items ), discounts on merchandise, special events etc etc.
Nowadays - that could be - say - £19.99

People a bit more well off could be 'gold' Mach One club members - that was
a few hundred quid - but you got your name on Thrust SSC. (It's been done
for MER and Stardust - to put a 5 gramme etched chip on B2 that could be
imaged by the microscope would be a huge publicity stunt ) Perhaps £199

Then - you could extend it to commercial members - who get to have their
name as a list of official supporters - and get to use a tour of the
facilities etc as a corporate entertainment event, or get Colin to do a
motivational talk or something. A few £10k's. You'd get Intel, Microsoft,
Tesco, Sainsburys, Maplin, 3M, blah blah blah - lots of outlets for that
sort of thing.

You could quite easily generate several hundred thousand pounds that way -
I'm sure of it.

But no. There's NOTHING. Updates to the website are infrequent. We were
promised vidoes on the website more than 2 years ago. Theres no
merchendise - I want a T-shirt, a DVD, a mission patch, a book, a bit of
comemorative left over insulating gold foil, a replica of the calibration
spot painting, an Alarm Clock that plays the Blur tune, a little model, a
big model, a LEGO model, Posters, etc etc. NOTHING!!

Sure -he gets himself in the news from time to time - but nothing for the
actual space enthusiast. I'm ALWAYS telling people about Beagle 2. LOADS of
people think it's got PEOPLE on it, people think it's going to return
sample, people think it's a genuine race with the americans etc etc etc.
Get this stuff out there- EDUCATE the public so when they see adverts
involving it - they know whats going on!!

I'm so very very frustrated at the way Colin manages this things on the
public front. I think Dr Mark Sims would do a much better job in that
respect. He's a much more approachable and interesting man who is prepared
to explain things etc ( the 'paws' website at www.star.le.ac.uk is a
thousand times more feature rich than beagle2.com )

What there IS - however - is the newsletter ( which is free ) and if you
havnt subscribed to it, then I strongly suggest you email the link on the
beagle2.com updates page and ask to be added to the list. Amazingly, I
think I have nearly all of them and they are interesting - but to be honest,
I'd rather I was paying £20 and getting one every 2 months - instead of
perhaps every 6 months and the OU paying for it!

It's not far off being way WAY too late for the publicity machine to work -
or maybe he'll get lucky - and Beagle 2 WONT be a nice new crater on mars
come Christmas day - and he can bounce back with pretty pictures and science
no-one will understand.

Doug

I doubt it. What I don't get with Beagle 2 is the lack of promo stuff.
Where are the T-shirts, the kids stuff etc.? Just look back to the
Sojurner
mission, they even made a kiddies toy of the rover. All respect to
Pilinger
and crew on getting Beagle 2 launched, but he should have taken a few
lessons off of Richard Noble for promoting a cause.

Martin



I suggested EXACTLY what Noble did to Pillinger himself at the OU Open day
about 18 months ago.

Noble had the Mach 1 supporters club - for a couple of dozen quid, you got
to go to open days to the building of thrust ssc, got newsletters ( now
collectors items ), discounts on merchandise, special events etc etc.
Nowadays - that could be - say - £19.99

People a bit more well off could be 'gold' Mach One club members - that was
a few hundred quid - but you got your name on Thrust SSC. (It's been done
for MER and Stardust - to put a 5 gramme etched chip on B2 that could be
imaged by the microscope would be a huge publicity stunt ) Perhaps £199

Then - you could extend it to commercial members - who get to have their
name as a list of official supporters - and get to use a tour of the
facilities etc as a corporate entertainment event, or get Colin to do a
motivational talk or something. A few £10k's. You'd get Intel, Microsoft,
Tesco, Sainsburys, Maplin, 3M, blah blah blah - lots of outlets for that
sort of thing.

You could quite easily generate several hundred thousand pounds that way -
I'm sure of it.

But no. There's NOTHING. Updates to the website are infrequent. We were
promised vidoes on the website more than 2 years ago. Theres no
merchendise - I want a T-shirt, a DVD, a mission patch, a book, a bit of
comemorative left over insulating gold foil, a replica of the calibration
spot painting, an Alarm Clock that plays the Blur tune, a little model, a
big model, a LEGO model, Posters, etc etc. NOTHING!!

Sure -he gets himself in the news from time to time - but nothing for the
actual space enthusiast. I'm ALWAYS telling people about Beagle 2. LOADS of
people think it's got PEOPLE on it, people think it's going to return
sample, people think it's a genuine race with the americans etc etc etc.
Get this stuff out there- EDUCATE the public so when they see adverts
involving it - they know whats going on!!

I'm so very very frustrated at the way Colin manages this things on the
public front. I think Dr Mark Sims would do a much better job in that
respect. He's a much more approachable and interesting man who is prepared
to explain things etc ( the 'paws' website at www.star.le.ac.uk is a
thousand times more feature rich than beagle2.com )

What there IS - however - is the newsletter ( which is free ) and if you
havnt subscribed to it, then I strongly suggest you email the link on the
beagle2.com updates page and ask to be added to the list. Amazingly, I
think I have nearly all of them and they are interesting - but to be honest,
I'd rather I was paying £20 and getting one every 2 months - instead of
perhaps every 6 months and the OU paying for it!

It's not far off being way WAY too late for the publicity machine to work -
or maybe he'll get lucky - and Beagle 2 WONT be a nice new crater on mars
come Christmas day - and he can bounce back with pretty pictures and science
no-one will understand.

Doug

"Doug Ellison" wrote:

Well - apart from myself and David Entwistle, I'm sure SOMEone in here is a
'fan' of the Beagle 2 mission.


Seing as there is some strange aversion to informing the public about Beagle
2 via it's own website - I set up a Yahoo group where hopefully - anyone
finding something around the world-wide-wibble can post etc.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/beagle2

Nothing there at the moment - but hopefully over time we can collect links,
images etc to hopefully sptread the good word!!

Doug

Have just had a look at the Beagle 2 website. Here's a gem:

*In 2001 NASA will launch an orbiter called Odyssey.*

I love that *will* - this stuff has lain untouched for decades and may
become the first fossil website. Odyssey has been returning fabulous
images since February 2002

Perhaps their efforts to eliminate all terrestrial life from Beagle
spilled over into the web office.

Or just maybe the stress of design, funding, building and launch has
left the whole team catatonic. I'd find that totally credible.

And the worst stress is yet to come - will they have a dreadful
Christmas or what.

Cheers

Martin

--------------
Martin Frey
N 51 02 E 0 47
--------------

"Doug Ellison" wrote:

Well - apart from myself and David Entwistle, I'm sure SOMEone in here is a
'fan' of the Beagle 2 mission.


Seing as there is some strange aversion to informing the public about Beagle
2 via it's own website - I set up a Yahoo group where hopefully - anyone
finding something around the world-wide-wibble can post etc.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/beagle2

Nothing there at the moment - but hopefully over time we can collect links,
images etc to hopefully sptread the good word!!

Doug

Have just had a look at the Beagle 2 website. Here's a gem:

*In 2001 NASA will launch an orbiter called Odyssey.*

I love that *will* - this stuff has lain untouched for decades and may
become the first fossil website. Odyssey has been returning fabulous
images since February 2002

Perhaps their efforts to eliminate all terrestrial life from Beagle
spilled over into the web office.

Or just maybe the stress of design, funding, building and launch has
left the whole team catatonic. I'd find that totally credible.

And the worst stress is yet to come - will they have a dreadful
Christmas or what.

Cheers

Martin

--------------
Martin Frey
N 51 02 E 0 47
--------------