Missing Beagle 2 Lander That Launched 20 Years Ago Found on Mars

The missing Beagle 2 lander, which was missing for over a decade, was found. The experts were relieved it landed safely on Mars but was short on accomplishing its mission.

Lost Beagle 2 Lander Found on Mars

Beagle 2 started its early 2003 Christmas Day plunge to the Martian surface. Before disappearing from view like a dot on a radar screen, it appeared in fine health and remained a perplexing mystery for over ten years.

Many orbiting spacecraft would repeatedly examine its planned touchdown area near the eastern side of the 930-mile-wide (1,500-kilometer) Isidis Planitia for clues. Nevertheless, when fully extended, Beagle 2's diminutive size of 6.5 feet (1.9 meters) in diameter makes its detection somewhat outside the reach of current optics, essentially an earthly needle in a Martian haystack.

Its attempt to establish communication with ultra-high frequency communication in January 2004 was likewise unsuccessful. It appeared that Beagle 2 had disappeared without a trace.

It was formally declared lost a month later. Furthermore, in May 2004, a UK/ESA investigation identified organizational and programmatic problems that raised the possibility of failure but failed to identify a single technical cause or defect.

The unfortunate lander was still being sought after, and its mysterious disappearance remained a mystery. A strange black speck was discovered in 2005 using imagery from NASA's Mars Global Surveyor, momentarily raising the possibility that it was Beagle 2. However, optical analysis determined that it was a crater that had eroded.

Ultimately, in January 2015, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, launched by NASA in 2006, discovered a peculiar feature unlike any of the rocks or soils nearby, thanks to observations made by the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE). Several photos showed objects where the parachute and thermal shield of Beagle 2 should have landed. Their structures, shapes, and shadows lined up with the bowl-shaped lander.

It was an amazing accomplishment. Once Beagle 2 was located, it was clear that the lander had made it to the ground intact, albeit dangerously near its intended landing site. However, it appeared that only two or three of its four solar arrays, which resembled petals, had fully opened, obstructing its radio antenna and preventing it from transmitting any data or indicating its status.

Despite the landing's success, this mission's near-miss success was a source of disappointment. There was also great sadness because, just a few months prior, in May 2014, Beagle 2's main investigator, Colin Pillinger of the Open University of the United Kingdom, passed away. He never knew, as he went to his grave, that the result of his efforts had successfully reached the surface of Mars despite enormous odds.

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Beagle 2 Lander Details

Beagle 2 is a Mars lander mounted on the top deck of the Mars Express Orbiter. It was released on Dec. 19, 2003, and was set to launch on the Red Planet on Dec. 25, 2003. It had two 60-foot (20-meter) long radar antennas and weighed 73 pounds (33.2 kilograms).

It was dubbed "Beagle 2" after HMS Beagle, the British biologist Charles Darwin's 1831-1836 circumnavigation ship in the Royal Navy that sought proof of the ancestry of species. Darwin was expected to spend up to six months on Mars, collecting soil samples and examining them for chemical traces of prehistoric life.

Beagle 2 has a 109-centimeter (43-inch) robotic arm and a small "mole" (Planetary Undersurface Tool, or PLUTO) that it can deploy with its arm. The PLUTO uses a compressed spring mechanism to move across the surface at around 1 cm every 5 seconds. This mechanism may also enable the mole to dig into the ground and gather a subterranean sample through a hollow in its tip.

A power cord that can be used as a winch to return the sample to the lander connects the mole to the lander. The lander will be outfitted with X-ray fluorescence spectrometers, environmental sensors, Mossbauer instruments, a microscope, panoramic and wide-angle cameras, gas chromatography, and mass spectroscopy equipment (the Gas Analysis Package, or GAP).