Solar cells developed by Chelmsford company EEV will play a vital role in the European Space Agency's mission to find life on Mars.

The mission to the red planet is scheduled for 2003 and the cells will be used to charge the batteries on board a small lander.

The lander will be released from the main spacecraft when it arrives on Mars six months after take-off.

On landing, a device will burrow beneath the surface, where conditions may be more hospitable, to search for signs of life.

Earlier NASA experiments have only studied the planet's surface.

EEV were invited to display the solar cells at the Tomorrow's World Live exhibition in London.

Ed Wakeford, from EEV's space and communications group, said: "The display generated a great deal of interest from the visitors who ranged in age from five to 75.

"A full-size model of the lander, which measures just one metre in diameter, was exhibited on the stand."

EEV also showed videos explaining the mission from the launch of the lander from the Mars Express spacecraft to the soil sampling which could prove there is, or was, life on the planet.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.