‘Heroic failure’ Beagle 2 craft located on the Red Planet

LONDON: Britain’s Beagle 2 spacecraft, once dubbed “a heroic failure” by the nation’s astronomer royal, was rebranded “a great success” yesterday after being found on Mars 11 years after it disappeared.

Beagle 2, part of a European Space Agency’s Mars Express mission searching for extraterrestrial life, had been due to land on Mars on Christmas Day 2003, but disappeared on December 19, 2003. Until now, nothing had been heard from it.

But at a news conference at London’s Royal Society scientific institution, space experts said the tiny Mars lander had been found on the surface of the red planet.

“Beagle 2 is no longer lost,” said David Parker, chief executive of UK Space Agency.

He said recent images from the HiRISE camera on Nasa’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter showed “good evidence” that the spacecraft landed on Mars on the date it was due – December 25, 2003 – but had only partially deployed.

“The entry, descent and landing sequence for Beagle 2 worked and the lander did successfully touch down on Mars on Christmas Day 2003,” UK Space Agency said.

Beagle 2 was named after the ship Charles Darwin sailed when he formulated his theory of evolution.

It was built by British scientists led by Colin Pillinger for about £50 million.

The plan was for it to report back from the Mars surface using instruments designed to help search for signs of life, but nothing was heard after it was dropped off to make its landing.

Mark Sims from Leicester University, Beagle 2’s mission manager, said that while the spacecraft had failed to communicate any data from Mars, it had succeeded in getting to its target, landing, and inspiring scientists. “Overall, I would say Beagle 2 was a great success,” he told the conference.

Martin Rees, Britain’s astronomer royal, last year praised Beagle 2 and Pillinger, saying: “This was a failure, but a heroic failure.”

Asked to suggest what might have gone wrong, Sims said: “It was most probably a hard landing.” – Reuters

PICTURE: REUTERS LOOK HERE: Beagle 2 mission manager, Mark Sims looks through a solar panel of the same kind used on Beagle 2 following a news conference in London, yesterday.