The Beagle Has Landed!

Earlier today on the Beagle2 website, this was still the concluding entry on the mission: 

Beagle 2 was due to land on Mars on 25th December 2003. The spacecraft was successfully ejected from Mars Express on 19th December 2003. Nothing has been heard from Beagle 2 and the mission is presumed lost.

Well, now we know that the United Kingdom's Beagle 2 Mars Lander (model shown below) made it to the surface of Mars.  As shown in the NASA image above from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), the lander, parachute, and cover were all located close together.  NASA noted:

 Analysis of the images indicates what appears to be a partially deployed configuration, with what is thought to be the rear cover with its pilot/drogue chute (still attached) and main parachute close by. Due to the small size of Beagle 2 (less than 7 feet, or 2 meters across for the deployed lander) it is right at the limit of detection of HiRISE, the highest-resolution camera orbiting Mars. The targets are within the expected landing area at a distance of about three miles (five kilometers) from its center.

 A European Space Agency press release expressed relief that the Beagle's story was now known: 

"We are very happy to learn that Beagle-2 touched down on Mars. The dedication of the various teams in studying high-resolution images in order to find the lander is inspiring,” says Alvaro Giménez, ESA’s Director of Science and Robotic Exploration. 

“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,” adds Rudolf Schmidt, ESA’s Mars Express project manager at the time.

The Beagle2 website has an interesting Q&A on the chances of a rover stumbling upon it:

Is there any chance that NASA's rovers can go and find Beagle 2? Beagle 2 has landed in the Isidis Planitia basin (about 90 degrees East, 10 degrees North). Spirit has landed in the Gusev Crater (about 175 degrees East, 15 degrees South). Opportunity is due to land on the Meridiani Planum (about 354 degrees East, 2 degrees South). In Earth terms this is approximately equivalent to Beagle 2 being in Sri Lanka (in the Indian Ocean), Spirit being in Fiji (in the Pacific Ocean) and Opportunity being south of Ghana (in the South Atlantic Ocean). Mars is about half the diameter of Earth, but even with these figures you can get an idea of how far apart the landing sites are. The NASA rovers can travel up to about a kilometre (0.6 miles) at an average rate of about 1 cm/sec (approximately 0.036 kmph or 0.02 mph), so contact with Beagle 2 would not be remotely possible.

Although NASA could not help with the rovers, but it certainly helped with the MRO. 
 

Top Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. of Arizona/University of Leicester. The image was taken in 2014 by NASA's MRO's HiRISE camera.

Bottom Image Credit:  Beagle 2 website.  All rights reserved Beagle 2.