Beagle-2 Mars Lander, Lost Since 2003, Gets Found By Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
Friday, January 16, 2015 - 13:40
in Astronomy & Space
The Beagle-2 Mars lander,hitched a ride on ESA’s Mars Express mission in 2003 and was released from the mothership on December 19th with a planned landing 6 days later. Then it was lost. Mars Express and NASA’s Mars Odyssey found nothing. But now the high-resolution camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has found it on the surface. The good news is engineers now know that at least the entry, descent and landing sequence worked and it did indeed successfully 'land' on Mars on Christmas Day 2003. Beagle-2 was less than 2 meters across when fully deployed so catching sight of it was right at the limit of the resolution of cameras in orbit around Mars. read more