Beagle 2

The Beagle 2 was a British Mars lander that was carried to Mars by the European Space Agency's 2003 Mars Express mission. It was an astrobiology mission that was designed to look for past life on the shallow surface of Mars.

Beagle 2

Replica of the Beagle 2 at the Science Museum, London
Mission type	Mars lander
Operator	National Space Centre
COSPAR ID	2003-022C[1]
Website	www.beagle2.com
Mission duration	6 months (planned)[2]
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[3]
Power	60 W[3]
Start of mission
Launch date	2 June 2003, 07:45 (2003-06-02UTC07:45) UTC
Rocket	Soyuz-FG / Fregat
Launch site	Baikonur Cosmodrome
Contractor	EADS Astrium
Mars lander
Landing date	25 December 2003, 02:45 UTC
Landing site	Isidis Planitia, Mars 11.5265°N 90.4295°E / 11.5265; 90.4295 (Beagle 2 landing site)

The Beagle 2 was conceived by a group of British academics. It was led by Professor Colin Pillinger of the Open University.

The spacecraft successfully arrived in orbit round Mars on 19 December 2003. It was going to land on the surface of Mars on 25 December. There was no contact at the expected time of landing. ESA declared that the mission was lost in February 2004, after several attempts to contact the spacecraft were unsuccessful.^[4]

Beagle 2's fate remained a mystery until January 2015. Then it was found on the surface of Mars by a series of images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter HiRISE camera.^[5][6] The images suggest that two of the spacecraft's four solar panels failed to deploy, blocking the spacecraft's communications antenna.

The Beagle 2 was named after HMS Beagle, the ship used by Charles Darwin.

Image of the possible landing site of Beagle 2