A Hong Kong scientist has teamed up with his former partner in the ill-fated Beagle 2 Mars exploration project to bid for a place in a forthcoming exploration of hidden shafts inside the Great Pyramid at Giza.
Ng Tze-chuen, a precision tool designer, has linked up with Shaun Whitehead, of British-based Astro Pioneer, to build tiny rovers and gripping tools for use inside unexplored shafts connected to the Queen's Chamber inside the ancient Egyptian structure.
'We are building small sampling robots,' said Dr Ng, a private dentist by profession. 'Shaun and I both design the prototypes based on concepts conceived from the Beagle project. We hope the Egyptians will let us build our own large rover to carry the sampling tools.'
Mr Whitehead was the chief engineer responsible for the robotic arm aboard the 2003 European Space Agency's Beagle 2 mission to Mars in which Dr Ng and Polytechnic University engineers took part.
The Beagle crash-landed on the planet on Christmas Day 2003 and lost all contact with the orbiting mother ship, Mars Express.
The two are now developing a beetle-like rover, weighing just 70 grams, with tiny movable robotic arms and a fibre-optic camera.