Lost Beagle2 Probe Found 'Intact' on Mars

The Beagle had landed !
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has finally located Beagle and put an end to the theories that it either crashed or missed Mars.

From the images, it seems that this system did not unfurl fully.

"Without full deployment, there is no way we could have communicated with it as the radio frequency antenna was under the solar panels," explained Prof Mark Sims, Beagle's mission manager from Leicester University.

"The failure cause is pure speculation, but it could have been, and probably was, down to sheer bad luck - a heavy bounce perhaps distorting the structure as clearances on solar panel deployment weren't big; or a punctured and slowly leaking airbag not separating sufficiently from the lander, causing a hang-up in deployment," he told BBC News.
www.bbc.co.uk...

The news comes with a tinge of sadness for me that Colin Pillinger died before confirmation that he had succeeded and the naysayers were wrong in their criticisms of him.

Rest in peace Colin , your mission succeeded , you got to Mars.

The discovery of Beagle comes less than a year after the death of the probe's principal investigator, Colin Pillinger. The Royal Society scientific institution announced an award in commemoration of Prof Pillinger on Friday.

a reply to: gortex

Very cool!

That they found it, and that it even tried to still deploy.

Sad that it failed however.

We knew it! Absolute proof that there are ancient technologies on Mars.

Maybe not so ancient but aged at least.


Peace

a reply to: eriktheawful

Sad that it failed however.

The important thing in my eyes is the mission succeeded in that Beagle landed on Mars rather than it crashed as had been previously assumed, unfortunately for reasons we don't yet know the lander failed to deploy fully.

For me this is good news and helpful for the prospects of securing funding for a future Beagle3 mission , it's also confirmation that Colin Pillinger who was the driving force behind the mission got it right as the mission was so nearly a complete success.

Well, that is bound to happen when you throw a freaking air bag at a planet with sensitive components inside it.

I am surprised we have not had more mission failures with this technique.

Glad they found it though!
To bad there is no way to send another rover over there and maybe see if it is a simple solution to fix it like bumping into it.
(kind of like hitting something with a hammer to make it work)

originally posted by: gortex
a reply to: eriktheawful

Sad that it failed however.

The important thing in my eyes is the mission succeeded in that Beagle landed on Mars rather than it crashed as had been previously assumed, unfortunately for reasons we don't yet know the lander failed to deploy fully.

For me this is good news and helpful for the prospects of securing funding for a future Beagle3 mission , it's also confirmation that Colin Pillinger who was the driving force behind the mission got it right as the mission was so nearly a complete success.

Yes, so near, still it's all a good sign that things are moving onwards and upwards.
Maybe the next mission should be for a Mars taxi/recovery pickup.

It`s just a rock, that looks like the beagle2.

seriously thought that`s cool that they found it. I think there are 15+ other mars landers that crashed or that they lost contact with maybe the orbiter will find some of them too.

Beagle's design incorporated a series of deployable "petals", on which were mounted its solar panels.

From the images, it seems that this system did not unfurl fully "Without full deployment, there is no way we could have communicated with it as the radio frequency antenna was under the solar panels," explained Prof Mark Sims, Beagle's mission manager from Leicester University.

it seems to be in 1 piece still so whatever happened must have been very minor. if it came to rest next to a large rock the rock might have prevented one or more of the "petals" from fully opening.

isuppose it`s too much to hope that it`s close to where the rover curiosity is so that it could drive over there and take some pics?

a reply to: Tardacus

isuppose it`s too much to hope that it`s close to where the rover curiosity is so that it could drive over there and take some pics?

Too far away I think. Just tried to eyeball it on google mars, about 3000km (very rough estimate cough)...

google.mars

Not even buried in too much Mars dust either. Nice find.

Such a shame Prof Pillinger didn't get to see this.

I remember the excitement at launch, & the excitement when it was about to land. All turned sour very quickly when they couldn't get a signal.
Has it really been 10 years? I remember it like yesterday.
It is a terrible shame that Colin Pillinger (CBE), never got to find out what happened to Beagle 2. Maybe a nudge could get it working again.

a reply to: gortex

I would love to know what the other round shiny piece is directly above where they are pointing out the Beagle probe is -- maybe a job for ATS gortex

a reply to: douglas5

Good question douglas , I don't know but perhaps one of the airbags , judging by the distance bar bottom left it seems about 8 meters away from the lander so I suspect it may well be associated with it.

Hopefully seeing what went wrong will be factored into the engineering for the upcoming Rover missions.

A thousand years from now a bunch of people on a conspiracy website will be discussing whether this is "just a rock" or it is an ancient technology

Maybe it has been transmitting data all of the time but the powers that be don't like what it found.