The 13.20 from Paignton Queens Park will be calling at Goodrington Sands, Churston and Mars….
THE Dartmouth Steam Railway & Riverboat Company has staked its claim to being the first heritage line to have a foothold on the red planet.
When NASA’S Mars 2020 mission touched down on Mars on February 18 after a journey lasting nearly seven months, its Perseverance rover carried a silicon chip with the company’s name digitally inscribed on it.
Operating over a terrain where the colour of the sand is not altogether that far removed from that of some South Devon beaches, the rover is looking to uncover traces of ancient life and collect soil and rock samples for further examination.
Back in 2019, the public were invited to send their name to Mars via the mission, so a staff member submitted the name of the company to the NASA website. The railway instantly received a boarding pass to confirm that its name would be included.
Process
The name was then engraved into a chip by engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory using an electronic beam ‘e-beam’ machine that specialises in etching very tiny features less than one micron, or the width of a human hair, in size. The machine is normally used to make highprecision devices in its laboratory.
A railway statement said: “Your favourite steam train made it to Mars, but unfortunately, just like here on Earth, there are no steam trains running on Mars at the moment due to the pandemic. We’re all hoping that things will open up as soon as possible and go back to normal!”
The Mars mission used science that is, of course, light years ahead of the steam locomotive. However, it was completed only with the aid of transport technology supplied by another Devon firm.
Heathcoat Fabrics of Tiverton, renowned as a manufacturer of incredibly strong and ultra-lightweight parachute fabrics, supplied the parachute which helped land the rover.