JPL: Beagle found on Mars by MRO

Find out the latest thinking about our universe.
Post Reply
User avatar
bystander
Apathetic Retiree
Posts: 21571
Joined: Mon Aug 28, 2006 2:06 pm
Location: Oklahoma

JPL: Beagle found on Mars by MRO

Post by bystander » Fri Jan 16, 2015 5:25 pm

'Lost' 2003 Mars Lander Found by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
NASA | JPL-Caltech | MRO | 2015 Jan 16
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.

A set of three observations with the orbiter's High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera shows Beagle 2 partially deployed on the surface of the planet, ending the mystery of what happened to the mission more than a decade ago. They show that the lander survived its Dec. 25, 2003, touchdown enough to at least partially deploy its solar arrays.

Beagle 2 hitched a ride to Mars on the European Space Agency's long-lived Mars Express mission. It was a collaboration between industry and academia designed to deliver world-class science from the surface of the Red Planet. ...

HiRISE images initially searched by Michael Croon of Trier, Germany, a former member of the European Space Agency's Mars Express operations team, provide evidence for the lander and key descent components on the surface of Mars within the expected landing area of Isidis Planitia, an impact basin close to the equator. ...

UK-led Beagle 2 Lander found on Mars
University of Leicester | 2015 Jan 16
Know the quiet place within your heart and touch the rainbow of possibility; be
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk.
— Garrison Keillor

User avatar
MargaritaMc
Look to the Evenstar
Posts: 1836
Joined: Wed Jan 09, 2013 10:14 pm
Location: 28°16'7"N 16°36'20"W

Re: JPL: Beagle found on Mars by MRO

Post by MargaritaMc » Sat Jan 17, 2015 9:21 am

Emily Lakdawalla, of the Planetary Society, has written an extensive blog post about this, with lots of images and links.

I particularly liked this BBC article to which Emily linked: What does Beagle2 say about how to handle failure?
M
"In those rare moments of total quiet with a dark sky, I again feel the awe that struck me as a child. The feeling is utterly overwhelming as my mind races out across the stars. I feel peaceful and serene."
— Dr Debra M. Elmegreen, Fellow of the AAAS

User avatar
MargaritaMc
Look to the Evenstar
Posts: 1836
Joined: Wed Jan 09, 2013 10:14 pm
Location: 28°16'7"N 16°36'20"W

Re: JPL: Beagle found on Mars by MRO

Post by MargaritaMc » Tue Jan 20, 2015 4:45 pm

NATURE:British Mars lander find is bittersweet victory
image: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
...Although images are not conclusive, Beagle 2 mission manager Mark Sims told journalists at a briefing in London that he was “very confident” that NASA had found the missing craft.

...When bouncing, the probe could have come down on a rock, or been unfortunate to land edge-on, where it was least protected by its airbags. Just like a bean can is more difficult to open if it's dented, on a damaged probe some of the solar panels could have been unable to deploy, says Sims. ...Data taken by the Mars Express orbiter after it released the lander suggests that at that time the planet's atmosphere may have been thinner than usual, so that it would have not sufficiently slowed the descent.

Yet another scenario is that one of the airbags may have failed to detach during landing and interfered with the deployment of the solar panels. Some interpretations of the images suggest an airbag is still attached, although their tan colour makes them difficult to pick out, he adds.

Sims says there are lessons to be learned from knowing Beagle 2’s fate. If he were to do the mission again, he would use a crushable airbag system that deflated on landing. He would also have put the antenna on the outside, so that contacting Earth would not depend on unfolding all the solar panels. Constraints on the mass and volume of Beagle 2 meant this had not been possible at the time, he adds...
Margarita
"In those rare moments of total quiet with a dark sky, I again feel the awe that struck me as a child. The feeling is utterly overwhelming as my mind races out across the stars. I feel peaceful and serene."
— Dr Debra M. Elmegreen, Fellow of the AAAS

Post Reply