This annotated image shows where features seen in an observation by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have been interpreted as hardware from the Dec. 25, 2003, arrival at Mars of the United Kingdom’s Beagle 2 Lander. The image was taken in 2014 by the orbiter’s HiRISE camera. Image courtesy of NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona/University of Leicester
Missing since 2003, British scientists said Friday new high-resolution images revealed that their Mars probe, Beagle 2, had landed safely on the surface of the Red Planet, but failed to fully deploy.
According to images captured by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, one of the spacecraft’s solar panels didn’t unfurl to uncover the radio antenna, which would have allowed Beagle 2 to signal its arrival to astronomers. When scientists didn’t hear back from the small lander, it was believed to be lost for more than 11 years.
“The history of space exploration is marked by both success and failure,” David Parker, chief executive of the UK Space Agency said in a statement Friday. “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.”
Beagle 2 detached itself from its mothership Mars Express, the European Space Agency’s orbiter, on Dec. 19, 2003. Beagle 2 was then supposed to touch down on the surface of Mars on Christmas Day, but scientists never heard its nine-note call-sign that was composed by Britpop band Blur.
NASA’s images also show that Beagle 2′s parachute and back cover are nearby the lander, which is less than seven feet wide. The billions of pixels in the images, however, don’t confirm what exactly happened to Beagle 2.
Video by NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
“The failure cause is pure speculation, but it could have been, and probably was, down to sheer bad luck,” Mark Sims, the mission’s manager, told the BBC, “a heavy bounce perhaps distorting the structure as clearances on solar panel deployment weren’t big; or a punctured and slowly leaking airbag not separating sufficiently form the lander, causing a hang-up in deployment.”
Today’s discovery comes a year after the death of Colin Pillinger, the British scientist who raised most of the money and adamantly drummed support for Europe’s first Mars mission.
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