Space & Astronomy

Beagle 2 Mars probe 'came close to success'

By T.K. Randall
November 11, 2016

Image Credit: NASA / JPL The late Colin Pillinger's ill-fated Mars lander, which made its way to the Red Planet as part of the Mars Express mission back in 2003, appeared to be in full working order when it detached from the orbiter and headed down through the atmosphere for what should have been a textbook landing.

Sadly though, as the hours ticked by, it became increasingly apparent that the probe wasn't sending any signals back and by February the following year Beagle 2 was declared officially lost.

The probe's fate would go on to remain a complete mystery until 2015 when NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter finally managed to capture an image of it on the surface of the planet.Now following a renewed analysis of the images by researchers from De Montfort and Leicester Universities, it has been revealed that Beagle 2 not only landed on Mars, but it even managed to deploy three of its solar panels and may have actually functioned for several months.

Exactly what stopped it from communicating with the Earth however remains unclear.

"We are delighted to say that we have gone way beyond the original plan to reach this exciting conclusion that Beagle 2 did not crash, but landed and probably deployed most of its panels," said lead digital design researcher Nick Higgett of De Montfort University.

"Hopefully these results help to solve a long held mystery and will benefit future missions to Mars."

Source: ITV News

Tags: Beagle 2, Mars