MARS Flight Crew Member on National TV.

October 1998 saw resident MARS Flight Crew mad scientist, Richard Osborne, on National TV. Richard, who has made numerous rocketry related media appearances previously, was a Team Expert on Channel 4's Scrapheap TV Programme, a programme where 2 teams are pitted against each other to solve technical challenges using materials provided on a scrapheap.

Richard's team's rocket went far higher than the other team, however, the parachute failed to open, and millions of viewers got to see what the MARS Flight Crew have known for ages - "Don't let Richard anywhere near recovery systems."

Needless to say, for this spectacular parachute failure, Richard is the leading contender for the 1998 MARS Golden Shovel Award. MARS Chairman, Ben Jarvis, was the technical consultant to this Scrapheap programme - sadly, his name didn't get shown on the credits.