Sad tale of the Beagle who was lost on Mars
You are quite correct. The Flying Scotsman underwent a decade-long £4.2 million restoration programme which was completed earlier this year.
The locomotive was built in Doncaster, becoming the first locomotive of the newlyformed London and North Eastern Railway.
Designed by Sir Nigel Gresley, it left the works on February 24, 1923, with the number 1472.
By 1924, when it was selected to appear at the British Empire Exhibition in London, the loco had been renumbered 4472 and been given the name Flying Scotsman. It was renumbered 60103 in 1949. WITH the recent sad news about the failure of NASA’s latest Mars probe, I wondered if it had ever been discovered what happened to the UK’s Beagle 2 craft.
I remember it was supposed to land on Christmas Day several years ago, but failed. – R.
Beagle 2 was a British landing spacecraft that formed part of the European Space Agency’s 2003 Mars Express mission. The craft lost contact with Earth during its final descent and its fate was unknown for more than 12 years.
Beagle 2 was conceived by a group of British academics headed by Professor Colin Pillinger of the Open University. It was to search for signs of life on Mars and its name reflected this goal. It was named after HMS Beagle, the ship that took Charles Darwin on a round the world voyage in the 1830s, which eventually culminated in his book, On The Origin Of Species.
The location of Beagle 2 on Mars was unknown until January 16, 2015, eight months after Colin Pillinger died.
It was confirmed that the lander had been located intact on the surface of Mars by NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Imaging analysis appears to show the probe on the surface, partially deployed, with objects that have been interpreted as being its parachute and back cover nearby.
It’s unlikely that the cause or causes of its failure will ever be fully known.