Space & Astronomy

Scientists confirm Beagle 2 found on Mars

By T.K. Randall
January 16, 2015 ·  19 comments

It is now believed that Beagle 2 did not crash. Image Credit: Beagle2.com (All Rights Reserved) The fate of the probe, which disappeared without a trace after detaching from the Mars Express spacecraft back in 2003, has finally been revealed today thanks to photographs taken from orbit by the team behind NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

As it turns out the lander actually made it to the surface of the planet successfully and didn't crash as was widely believed. Unfortunately however some of its panels failed to deploy upon landing which meant that it was unable to send back any signals.

"The history of space exploration is marked by both success and failure," said UK Space Agency chief executive David Parker. "This finding makes the case that Beagle 2 was more of a success than we previously knew and undoubtedly an important step in Europe's continuing exploration of Mars.""What we can say with some confidence today is that Beagle 2 is no longer lost and furthermore it seems we are not looking at a crash site."

It isn't clear exactly what caused the panel deployment to fail but possibilities include damage sustained during landing or the airbag becoming stuck in the mechanism.

"Personally I think it is a bad luck scenario, I don't think anything was wrong with the engineering, we we just unlucky on the day," said Beagle 2 project scientist Professor Mark Sims.

Source: Sky News | Comments (19)

Tags: Beagle 2, Mars