London: A British-built probe which vanished 11 years ago has been found on Mars, scientists said yesterday, solving an enduring mystery of space exploration.
Joy at the discovery was tinged with sadness that it came a year after the death of Professor Colin Pillinger, the eccentric but brilliant driving force behind the 2003 mission.
Pillinger raised much of the money for the launch and died frustrated at the lack of support for a follow-up mission.
“If we’d turned around immediately and said we’ll give it another shot, we could have men on their way to Mars by now,” Pillinger told his hometown newspaper, Bristol Post, in 2012.
Beagle 2 was a £50m ($76m) mission to establish whether there was, or had ever been, life on Mars but it was lost without trace on December 26, 2003.
It was detected during an analysis of images taken by Nasa’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter last year but scientists said it would now be impossible to retrieve data it gathered.
“What we can say with some confidence today is that Beagle 2 is no longer lost and it seems we are not looking at a crash site,” David Parker, Head, UK Space Agency, said. “These images are consistent with Beagle 2 having successfully landed on Mars but only partially deploying itself.”
The partial deployment meant that it could not make contact with the Beagle team on the earth and that the data stored can no longer be retrieved. Images showed its pilot chute attached and main parachute nearby in the intended landing area — the Isidis Planitia basin. AFP
