Britain may have to give up on Mars

LONDON, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- Funding may kill Britain's future in Mars missions, despite the success of the Beagle 2 project, the BBC reported.

The Beagle 2 probe is set to land on Mars on Christmas Day, but a shortfall in funding could leave Britain behind other European nations in the race to explore the planet.

"Beagle has really brought the United Kingdom science and engineering community together in a way that has never happened before," said David Parker of EADS Astrium, a firm that is doing a pilot study to investigate the costs and technical challenges of the Mars sample return mission.

Britain signed up for the Aurora program two years ago, investing $2.3 million, but it has yet to decide whether to join the full program, which includes the two new Mars missions.

Mars exploration comes under the umbrella of the Aurora program of the European Space Agency, which wants to land probes and eventually, astronauts, on the Red Planet, the BBC said.

The ExoMars mission, set for 2009, would investigate the biology of the planet.