[meteorite-list] 'Lost' Beagle 2 Mars Lander Found by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter

[Ron Baalke]

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.php?feature=4446

'Lost' 2003 Mars Lander Found by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
January 16, 2015

[Image]
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.

The Beagle 2 Mars Lander, built by the United Kingdom, has been thought 
lost on Mars since 2003, but has now been found in images from NASA's 
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

A set of three observations with the orbiter's High Resolution Imaging 
Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera shows Beagle 2 partially deployed on 
the surface of the planet, ending the mystery of what happened to the 
mission more than a decade ago. They show that the lander survived its 
Dec. 25, 2003, touchdown enough to at least partially deploy its solar 
arrays.

Beagle 2 hitched a ride to Mars on the European Space Agency's long-lived 
Mars Express mission. It was a collaboration between industry and academia 
designed to deliver world-class science from the surface of the Red Planet.

"I am delighted that Beagle 2 has finally been found on Mars," said Mark 
Sims of the University of Leicester, U.K. He was an integral part of the 
Beagle 2 project from the start, leading the initial study phase and was 
Beagle 2 mission manager. "Every Christmas Day since 2003 I have wondered 
what happened to Beagle 2. My Christmas Day in 2003 alongside many others 
who worked on Beagle 2 was ruined by the disappointment of not receiving 
data from the surface of Mars. To be frank I had all but given up hope 
of ever knowing what happened to Beagle 2. The images show that we came 
so close to achieving the goal of science on Mars.

HiRISE images initially searched by Michael Croon of Trier, Germany, a 
former member of the European Space Agency's Mars Express operations team, 
provide evidence for the lander and key descent components on the surface 
of Mars within the expected landing area of Isidis Planitia, an impact 
basin close to the equator.

Subsequent re-imaging and analysis by the Beagle 2 team, the HiRISE team 
and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, have confirmed 
that the targets discovered are of the correct size, shape, color and 
dispersion to be Beagle 2. JPL planetary geologist Tim Parker, who has 
assisted in the search and processed some of the images said, "I've been 
looking over the objects in the images carefully, and I'm convinced that 
these are Beagle 2 hardware."

Analysis of the images indicates what appears to be a partially deployed 
configuration, with what is thought to be the rear cover with its pilot/drogue 
chute (still attached) and main parachute close by. Due to the small size 
of Beagle 2 (less than 7 feet, or 2 meters across for the deployed lander) 
it is right at the limit of detection of HiRISE, the highest-resolution 
camera orbiting Mars. The targets are within the expected landing area 
at a distance of about three miles (five kilometers) from its center.

"I can imagine the sense of closure that the Beagle 2 team must feel," 
said Richard Zurek of JPL, project scientist now for Mars Reconnaissance 
Orbiter (MRO) and previously for NASA's still-missing 1998 Mars Polar 
Lander. "MRO has helped find safe landing sites on Mars for the Curiosity 
and Phoenix missions and has searched for missing craft to learn what 
may have gone wrong. It's an extremely difficult task, as the craft are 
small and the search areas are vast. It takes the best camera we have 
in Mars orbit and work by dedicated individuals to be successful at this."

HiRISE is operated by the University of Arizona, Tucson. The instrument 
was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. of Boulder, Colorado. 
The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project is managed for NASA's Science 
Mission Directorate in Washington, by JPL, a division of the California 
Institute of Technology, Pasadena.

For more information about HiRISE, visit:

http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu

Additional information about MRO is online at:

http://www.nasa.gov/mro

Media Contact

Guy Webster
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California
818-354-6278
guy.webster at jpl.nasa.gov