Beagle 2
The Beagle 2 is an inoperative British Mars lander that was transported by the European Space Agency's 2003 Mars Express mission. It was intended to conduct an astrobiology mission that would have looked for evidence of past life on Mars.
Replica of the Beagle 2 at the Science Museum, London | |
| Mission type | Mars lander |
|---|---|
| Operator | National Space Centre |
| COSPAR ID | 2003-022C |
| 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 |
| Deployed from | Mars Express |
| Deployment date | December 19, 2003 |
| End of mission | |
| Declared | February 6th, 2004 |
| Mars lander | |
| Landing date | 25 December 2003, 02:45 UTC |
| Landing site | Isidis Planitia, Mars 11.52879°N 90.43139°E |
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. ESA, however, received no communication from the lander at its expected landing time on Mars, and declared 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 on the surface of Mars in a series of images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter HiRISE camera. The images showed it landed safely but two of its four solar panels failed to deploy, blocking the spacecraft's communications antenna.
The Beagle 2 is named after HMS Beagle, the ship that took the naturalist Charles Darwin on his round-the-world voyage.