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just had this sent to me:

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You may have heard there are currently dust storms on Mars and are
wondering if there will be any problems for the Beagle 2 landing. We do
not anticipate increased risk from dust during landing.

One storm is around the Valles Marineris area which is on the other side
of the planet from Isidis Planitia (our landing site) and is therefore
much less concern.  A local storm is presently heading towards the
Hellas Basin.  But even this is several thousand kilometres from our
predicted landing site.

A local dust storm can develop into a regional one or even a global one.
But as global dust storms statistically happen during the summer in the
southern hemisphere on Mars, and this is now coming to an end, we are
hopeful that this is all a dust storm in a tea cup.  We will continue to
monitor events and try to work out if there are any implications for the
lifetime of Beagle 2's solar arrays as the dust settles.


The Beagle 2 team.

heh, next thing we will be having "weather on mars" reports after the news.

only a few days to go now, fingers crossed!

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We have separation! That was the message from the European Space
Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt, Germany, to announce that the
British-built Beagle 2 spacecraft is now flying independently from its
Mars Express "mother ship".

Initial confirmation that the separation manoeuvre has been successful
came at 10.42 GMT, when Mars Express mission control at ESOC received
telemetry data to indicate that electrical disconnection had taken place
between Beagle 2 and the orbiter. This was followed at 11.12 GMT by
confirmation that the two spacecraft had mechanically separated.

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Farewell, Beagle 2

The bright spot on the left-hand side of this picture is
the back side of Beagle 2, slowly drifting away from Mars Express. This image, taken this morning (19-Dec-2003) at 9:33 CET, shows the lander when it was about 20 metres away from the mother spacecraft, on its way to Mars.
Copyright: ESA

http://www.beagle2.c...-separation.htm