Beagle 2, a British lander missing on Mars since its attempt to reach the surface of the red planet on Chrismas Day 2003, has been found.
UK Space Agency chief executive David Parker confirmed that photos taken by a NASA orbiter spacecraft show Beagle 2 successfully landed 12 years ago.
“The history of space exploration is marked by both success and failure,” Mr Parker said at a press conference this morning. “This finding makes the case that Beagle 2 was more of a success than we previously knew and undoubtedly an important step in Europe’s continuing exploration of Mars.”
Mr Parker confirmed that Beagle 2’s location on Mars was not being considered a crash site, and that he was confident the probe had landed safely, but failed to deploy properly.
Beagle 2 on Mars [NASA]
Professor Mark Sims of the University of Leicester, whose research was integral to the project, expressed delight that the probe had been found at long last.
“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,” Prof Sims said.
“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,” he added.
