Big Red Is Back
Christmas is coming. The jolly red elf is about to break and enter and sometime before dawn Rudolph (he of red-nosed fame) will prance or gallup or whatever into Pongo’s annual reindeer ambush. Candy canes are lined up on the bookshelf above the desk and the wrappers of their dearly departed comrades litter the floor about my stocking-clad feet.
But this holiday season an old red is back. Older than Christmas. It’s our old buddy Mars. The Beagle 2, launched from the ESA’s Mars Espress, is due to land on the red planet on Christmas day for the Europeans (Christmas Eve here in the New World). Two american spacecraft will follow in January.
What a cool gift.
