Beagle 2
Replica of the Beagle 2 at the London Science Museum
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| Mission type | Geochemistry and astrobiology Mars lander |
|---|---|
| Operator | National Space Centre, UK |
| COSPAR ID | 2003-022C |
| Website | beagle2 |
| Mission duration | 6 months (planned) |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Landing mass | 33.2 kg (73 lb) |
| Payload mass | 9 kg (20 lb) science instruments |
| Dimensions | Folded: 1 m diameter Unfolded: 1.9 m diameter Height: 12 cm |
| Power | 60 W |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | 2 June 2003, 07:45 UTC |
| Rocket | Soyuz-FG / Fregat |
| Launch site | Baikonur Cosmodrome |
| Contractor | EADS Astrium |
| Mars lander | |
| Landing date | 25 December 2003, 02:45 UTC |
| Landing site |
Isidis Planitia, Mars 11°31′35″N 90°25′46″E / 11.5265°N 90.4295°E |
The Beagle 2 was a British Mars lander that was transported by the European Space Agency's 2003 Mars Express mission. It was a failed astrobiology mission that would have looked for past life on the shallow surface of Mars.
The spacecraft was successfully deployed from the Mars Express on 19 December 2003 and was scheduled to land on the surface of Mars on 25 December; however, no contact was received at the expected time of landing on Mars, with the ESA declaring the mission lost in February 2004, after numerous attempts to contact the spacecraft were made.
The Beagle 2's fate remained a mystery until January 2015 when it was located intact on the surface of Mars in a series of images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter HiRISE camera. The images suggest that two of the spacecraft's four solar panels failed to deploy, blocking the spacecraft's communications antenna.
The Beagle 2 is named after HMS Beagle, the ship used by Charles Darwin.
The Beagle 2 was conceived by a group of British academics headed by Professor Colin Pillinger of the Open University, in collaboration with the University of Leicester. The project was designed and developed by several UK academics and companies. Its purpose was to search for signs of life on Mars, past or present, and its name reflected this goal, as Pillinger explained:
"HMS Beagle was the ship that took Darwin on his voyage around the world in the 1830s and led to our knowledge about life on Earth making a real quantum leap. We hope Beagle 2 will do the same thing for life on Mars."
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Wikipedia