NEW YORK: 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.
The Beagle-2 lander was launched as part of the European Space Agency’s Mars Express mission, with the lander released from its mother craft on December 19, 2003.
Beagle-2 was due to land on Mars six days later, but scientists heard nothing from the craft after its scheduled touchdown, the ESA said.
Now, over a decade later, NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has spotted the lander intact and partially deployed.
“Not knowing what happened to Beagle-2 remained a nagging worry. Understanding now that Beagle-2 made it all the way down to the surface is excellent news,” Rudolf Schmidt, ESA’s Mars Express project manager at the time, was quoted as saying.
According to the ESA, the lander has “only one, two or at most three of the four solar panels open” and with its main parachute still attached nearby.
