] The Beagle 2 probe, named for the ship that carried
] naturalist Charles Darwin on his voyage of discovery in
] the 1830s, will scratch Mars' surface with a robotic arm
] to test for signs of organic matter. It is expected to
] transmit its first pictures from Mars to mission control
] early next month.

It was launched just six months ago via a Russian Soyuz rocket, and is scheduled to attempt landing on Christmas Day. So far so good, but there is still so much that can go wrong. Only three other missions (to my knowledge) have managed a successful landing on Mars -- the two Viking landers in 1976, and the Pathfinder in 1997. Will Beagle be the fourth? Stay tuned . . .