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Possible evidence found for Beagle 2 location
 
21 December 2005

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Beagle 2 lander
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ESA's Mars Express spacecraft, carrying the Beagle 2 lander, was launched on 2 June 2003, arriving in the vicinity of Mars in December. The separation of Beagle 2 from Mars Express took place flawlessly on 19 December. The satellite continued its mission with its successful insertion into a Mars orbit on 25 December, the day on which Beagle 2 was due to land.

The first radio contact with Beagle 2 was expected shortly after the scheduled landing time but no signal was received.

Credits: ESA/Denman productions

 
 
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A specially processed NASA Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) image taken by the Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC). The Beagle scientists believe that out of the many thousands of craters and hundreds of square kilometres of Beagle 2’s landing ellipse, no other candidate site has come close to providing such compelling evidence of Beagle’s landing.

Impact ejecta can be seen similar to the one produced by MER-A’s front shield in the Bonneville crater and a cluster of symmetrically arranged objects that match a successful gas bag segment separation, dropping the lander to the ground.

Credits: NASA/JPL/Malin Space Science Systems/Virtual Analytics Ltd

 


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