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Britain's Beagle 2 lander has finally been spotted, 12 years after it went missing while trying to land on the surface of Mars History books will need to be rewritten after scientists announced today that Beagle 2 has been finally been found on Mars, 12 years after it vanished without trace. The beleaguered spacecraft, which has become a byword for mission failure, was spotted by scientists operating the HiRise camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO). It was discovered just 5km from its original touchdown site in the Isidis Planitia basin. And it appears that just one faulty motor was...

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain and the European Space Agency said Monday they had learned from the failure of the Beagle 2 mission to seek out life on Mars, but kept a report on the high-profile flop tightly under wrap. The Beagle 2, named after the ship Charles Darwin sailed in when he formulated his theory of evolution, was built by British scientists for about $89.46 million and hitched a flight to Mars aboard the European Space Agency's orbiter Mars Express. Beagle was due to crash into Mars in a bouncing ball of airbags and begin looking for signs of life...

    Mars Express Positioned for Beagle 2 DeploymentBy Peter de SeldingSpace News Staff Writerposted: 10:20 am ET16 December 2003  PARIS-- Ground controllers of Europe's Mars Express satellite on Dec. 16 successfully completed a precision-pointing maneuver to prepare the satellite for a planned Dec. 19 ejection of its small Beagle-2 lander, the mission's flight director said.Michael McKay, flight operations director at the European Space Agency's Esoc space operations center in Darmstadt, Germany, said Mars Express was rotated and its engines briefly fired to increase the satellite's speed as it approaches Mars as part of the maneuver.    Images A breakdown of...

Inside Mission Control (UK), preparing for Christmas Day landing on MarsEye witness: Beagle 2. Britain's National Space Centre may be based on an industrial estate in Leicester, but it has its sights set firmly on Mars By Severin Carrell 14 December 2003 An industrial estate in Leicester is an unlikely home for Britain's first ever mission into space, let alone the base for a team of scientists who could be the first people to find life on Mars. But in a small complex of buildings next to the council vehicle depot, the British National Space Centre, as it is grandly...

Beagle 2 probe 'spotted' on Mars By Pallab Ghosh BBC science correspondent Three dark triangular features in the centre could be airbagsThe scientist behind the British Beagle 2 mission to the Red Planet says the craft may have been found in pictures of the Martian surface. Colin Pillinger says the images suggest the mission very nearly worked, but Beagle somehow failed to contact Earth. He thinks the craft may have hit the ground too hard - as the atmosphere was thinner than usual because of dust storms in that region of Mars. This may have damaged onboard instruments, preventing the...

Ammonia may have been found in Mars' atmosphere which some scientists say could indicate life on the Red Planet. Researchers say its spectral signature has been tentatively detected by sensors on board the European Space Agency's orbiting Mars Express craft.

Beagle 2 mission was doomed long before take-off, claims inquiry By Robert Matthews, Science Correspondent (Filed: 23/05/2004) The Beagle 2 mission to Mars was a disaster waiting to happen, according to the official inquiry into the debacle, whose findings will be made public tomorrow. Hailed as Britain's first probe to another planet, Beagle 2 was supposed to have touched down on the Red Planet on Christmas Day last year and perform experiments to detect signs of alien life. Critics of Prof Pillinger warned that Beagle 2 had not been adequately tested Instead, all contact was lost with the probe just...

LONDON -- European scientists said Monday they are examining an image of its Beagle 2 Mars lander, taken moments after it separated from its mothership and later was lost, that also shows an unidentified object. The mysterious blot on the photograph is being scrutinized as one of several potential reasons for the failure of the mission — Europe's first attempt to land a probe on the Red Planet. Mission controllers said they were also considering the possibility that Beagle 2 simply crashed onto the surface of Mars because its atmosphere was less dense than expected. Scientists said they are examining...

Astronomers holding thumbs in Beagle searchMarch 08 2004 at 06:30PM By Mark Meadows London - Beagle 2, the British space probe which disappeared as it descended towards Mars, may have been detected on the surface of the Red Planet, scientists said on Monday. No signal has been received from the craft since it was due to land on Christmas Day last year, despite various attempts by Mars orbiters and telescopes on Earth to make contact. But photographic images of the area where Beagle 2 was to have come down show four bright spots, dubbed a "string of pearls" by scientists,...

Beagle 2 entered Mars 'too fast' A heat shield will protect Beagle during descent The Beagle 2 lander could have crashed into Mars because the atmosphere on the planet was less dense than expected. UK mission scientists told a London meeting the probe may simply have been going too fast for its parachute and airbags to bring about a soft landing. The Royal Society conference also heard photographic evidence had found four bright spots, dubbed the "string of pearls", on the surface of the planet. Scientists are studying the images to see if they show the lander's remains. They want...

Beagle 2 scientists say craft is lost Simon Jeffery and agencies Wednesday February 11, 2004 Hopes of finding Beagle 2, the British Mars probe, today appeared close to zero after its creators declared it to be lost. There is still a slim chance that Mars Express - the European space agency orbiter circling the red planet - will pick up a signal, but Beagle will now be subject to the sort of inquiry held when any spacecraft goes missing. Colin Pillinger, the head of the team that sent it into space, said the investigation would establish the mission's areas of...

3.45pm update -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Attempt to contact Beagle 2 ends in failure Adam Blenford and agencies Monday January 26, 2004 A fresh attempt to make contact with the missing Mars probe Beagle 2 has ended in failure, disappointed British scientists admitted today. More than a month after the £50 million probe was scheduled to land on the surface of the red planet, mission scientists from the Open University have still received no data from Mars. The latest attempt to establish contact with Beagle 2 was made over the weekend, after a 10-day pause designed to force the lander's internal computer into...

Beagle Team Postpones Search By John von Radowitz, Science Correspondent, PA News Scientists have postponed a search due to have started tomorrow for the lost Beagle 2 probe. Instead they will try to communicate with the craft over the coming weekend. Controllers stopped trying to raise the British Mars lander on January 12. By maintaining radio silence, it was hoped Beagle 2 would be forced into an emergency communication mode that ensured its transmitter was kept on for most of the Martian day. This would give its mother ship, the Mars Express orbiter, the best chance of making contact. The...

Mars 'Grand Canyon' snapped by Beagle mother ship Mars Express, the mother ship of Britain's ill-fated Beagle 2, has sent back its first pictures of the Red Planet's Grand Canyon. The pictures show Valles Marineris - more than six times deeper than the famous Grand Canyon on Earth and as long as the whole of Europe. It is the first image of this size showing the surface of Mars in high resolution in colour and in 3D. The lower part of the picture shows the same region in perspective view as if seen from a low-flying aircraft. It shows vast...

New bid to contact Beagle 2 fails Press Association Saturday January 10, 2004 9:08 PM The European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter failed to contact the Beagle 2 probe in its latest attempt, British scientists said. Mars Express flew over Beagle's designated landing site on Mars on Saturday but heard no signal, mission scientists said. Hopes of finding the British-built lander, which was due to touch down on the Red Planet on Christmas Day, are fading fast. Scientists said Mars Express would make another pass over the landing site early on Monday and would listen for a signal. After that,...

New bid fails to raise Beagle Scientists say two further attempts to contact Britain's Beagle 2 Mars probe have failed. The craft's mothership, Mars Express, flew over the landing site at 12.50pm yesterday and 1.27pm today but heard no signal. Mars Express was in its most sensitive listening mode. Hopes of finding the lander, which has been missing since Christmas Day, are now fading fast.More passes will be made tomorrow at 2.04pm and on Monday at 2.02am. Story filed: 18:10 Friday 9th January 2004

Mothership is last chance for Beagle 2 13:17 06 January 04 NewScientist.com news service Europe's Mars Express spacecraft is gearing up for a last-ditch attempt to make contact with the missing Beagle 2 lander. Beagle 2 has been completely silent since it entered the Martian atmosphere on Christmas Day. Several attempts by NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter and the 76-metre Jodrell Bank radio dish in the UK have failed to pick up any signals from the British lander. Scientists say their best hope is that Mars Express, Beagle 2's mothership, will pick up transmissions from the lander when it flies over...

LONDON (Reuters) - European scientists begin last ditch attempts on Wednesday to contact the missing Beagle 2 Mars probe that might have crashed during its Christmas Day touchdown. The first fully European mission to the planet was designed to answer the question "Is there life on Mars?" but efforts to contact it have failed -- in contrast to a U.S. probe that began sending back pictures of the planet's surface this week. Scientists searching for the British-built Beagle said hopes were riding on its mother ship picking up a signal at around 7:15 a.m. EST on Wednesday when it passes...

Where Beagle only dares, Nasa arrives in style By Cahal Milmo 05 January 2004 In California, there was champagne to celebrate another American conquest of the final frontier. In rainy north London, there was only tea and sympathy to be had as British scientists contemplated another day of interplanetary failure. After a seven-month journey across 300 million miles of nothingness, a six-wheeled Nasa robot the size of a golf buggy heralded a new chapter in man's exploration of the cosmos yesterday when it successfully bounced to a halt from a speed of 12,000mph and sent home startling pictures of Mars....

The Spirit rover probe’s success in landing on Mars so soon after Beagle 2’s ominous silence may not be entirely surprising when the missions are compared. The disparity in the price tags alone is enough to raise a few eyebrows. The Americans have splashed out 820 million (£460 million) on their Mars Exploration Rover (MER) mission, which includes a sister rover to Spirit, Opportunity. But the cash-strapped Brits, who unlike Nasa cannot throw huge amounts of taxpayers’ money at space projects, spent a paltry £140 million on the Mars Express package overall. While Spirit itself cost around 400 million (£220...