Keep the shuttle flying: Fwd: Beagle-2 lander found on Mars

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From: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Date: January 16, 2015 at 11:10:20 AM CST
To: "Gary Johnson" <gjohnson144@comcast.net>
Subject: FW: Beagle-2 lander found on Mars

16 January 2015

Beagle-2 lander found on Mars

Colour image of Beagle-2 on Mars

The UK-led Beagle-2 Mars lander, which hitched a ride on ESA's Mars Express mission and was lost on Mars since 2003, has been found in images taken by a NASA orbiter at the Red Planet.
Beagle-2 was released from its mother craft on 19 December 2003 and was due to land six days later. But nothing was heard from the lander after its scheduled touchdown, and searches by Mars Express and NASA's Mars Odyssey mission were fruitless.
Now, over a decade later, the lander has been identified in images taken by the high-resolution camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The lander is seen partially deployed on the surface, showing that the entry, descent and landing sequence worked and it did indeed successfully land on Mars on Christmas Day 2003.
Close-up of Beagle-2 on Mars
"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 high resolution images were initially searched by Michael Croon, a former member of the Mars Express operations team at ESA's Space Operations Centre, ESOC, in Darmstadt, Germany, working in parallel with members of the Beagle-2 industrial and scientific teams.
The small size of Beagle-2 – less than 2 m across when fully deployed – meant this was a painstaking endeavour, right at the limit of the resolution of cameras in orbit around Mars.
Beagle-2 on Mars
After the identification of potential counterparts to Beagle-2 in the expected landing of Isidis Planitia, a large impact basin close the martian equator, further images were obtained and analysed by the camera team, the Beagle-2 team and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The images show the lander in what appears to be a partially deployed configuration, with only one, two or at most three of the four solar panels open, and with the main parachute and what is thought to be the rear cover with its pilot/drogue parachute still attached close by.
The size, shape, colour and separation of the features are consistent with Beagle-2 and its landing components, and lie within the expected landing area at a distance of about 5 km from its centre.
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Artist's impression of Beagle 2 lander
Possible features have also been speculatively identified for airbags, which cushioned the landing, and possibly for the front heatshield. Further imaging will be needed to confirm the latter targets.
The partial deployment explains why no signals were ever received from the lander: full deployment of all solar panels was needed to expose the radio antenna to transmit data and receive commands from Earth.
Unfortunately, given the partial deployment and covering of the antenna, there is no possibility of reviving Beagle-2 and recover data from it.
Nevertheless, knowing that Beagle-2 did after all land successfully on Mars adds renewed impetus to the next phase of Europe's exploration of the Red Planet, with the launches of ESA's ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter and Entry, Descent and Landing Demonstrator in 2016 and the ExoMars rover in 2018.
For more information and reaction, see the UKSA news report.
Beagle-2 was the UK's first mission to another planet. The project was a partnership between the Open University, the University of Leicester and EADS Astrium UK (now Airbus Defence and Space). Other funding partners included ESA, the Office of Science and Technology of the Department of Trade and Industry, the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC), the Wellcome Trust, the National Space Centre and the Millennium Commission.
Professor Colin Pillinger from the Open University led the Beagle-2 project with inspirational enthusiasm; he died in May 2014. Professor George Fraser of the University of Leicester and Professor David Barnes of Aberystwyth University were also major contributors to Beagle-2, both of whom also died in 2014.

Copyright 2000 - 2015 © European Space Agency. All rights reserved.

UK Mars lander Beagle 2 found
16 January 2015 by Keith Cooper
Beagle 2 on the surface of Mars, as seen by the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. Image: HiRISE/NASA/University of Leicester.

The UK's Beagle 2 mission to Mars, which was lost in Christmas week 2003 during the final stages of its voyage to the red planet, has been rediscovered by NASA's eagle eye in the Martian sky, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).
The lander has been identified as being partially deployed in an area of Mars called Isidis Planitia, a four-billion year old impact basin near the planet's equator. The readily identifiable shape of at least two of its four solar panels unfurled, plus its base and lid looking a bit like a flower with petals, is visible in the images from MRO's high resolution HiRISE camera.
A close up of Beagle 2 on the Martian surface, showing what appears to be several solar panels unfurled, Image: HiRISE/NASA/JPL/David Parker/University of Leicester.
The lander was first spotted by Michael Croon, a former member of ESA's Mars Express operations team, in images taken by MRO in 2013. Croon alerted the Beagle 2 team in the UK and, after analysis and processing of further images, a team led by Professor Mark Sims of the University of Leicester, who was part of the original Beagle 2 team back in 2003, today revealed the images that help vindicate the mission.
"Overall I would personally say that Beagle 2 was a great success," says Sims. "The images prove that it was the first European controlled landing on another planet."
So what happened? Sims says that we cannot be sure yet from the images, which are fairly low resolution – HiRISE has a resolution of 30cm per pixel, and a fully opened up Beagle 2 would cover an area of just 1.9 x 1.6 metres.
"There is an amazingly long list of reasons [why Beagle 2 did not deploy fully]," says Sims "Whatever happened, it looks to have been just bad luck."
There have been many theories over the years about what happened to Beagle 2. One possibility was that dust storms on Mars could have warmed the atmosphere, causing it to expand, meaning the parachutes could not function as planned and Beagle 2 would hit the surface too hard. Other scenarios included a leak in Beagle 2's air bags that would have otherwise cushioned its landing, its backshell tangling with its parachute when it detached, or becoming tangled up in its parachute or airbags upon landing. Either way, without all its solar panels unfurled, its antenna could not deploy and communicate to scientists on Earth. Instead it just sat there, waiting for commands from Earth that never came, until it lost power.
The images show not just the lander, but also what appear to be its rear shell, with the pilot chute still attached and blowing in the Martian breeze, and its main parachutes. The lander stands out because of its highly reflective solar panels, the glint from which is seen changing with the angle of the Sun, while its low stature casts no shadows. The airbags are more difficult to spot, being of a similar red hue to the surface.
Beagle 2 was the brainchild of the late planetary scientist Colin Pillinger. Piggybacking on the European Space Agency's Mars Express satellite that launched on 2 June 2003, which is still orbiting Mars to this day, Beagle 2 was a stationary landing craft rather than a rover. It was designed to last on the surface for at least 180 Martian days (a Martian day is 39 minutes longer than an Earth day), with a remit to investigate potential signs of life both past or present using its robotic arm, cameras, drill, X-ray spectrometer, a gas analysis package and even a 'mole' that could be deployed to burrow below the surface. However, after detaching from Mars Express and coasting for six days, it entered the atmosphere at a velocity of 20,000 kilometres per hour on Christmas Day 2003. Beagle 2 was not built with a communication system for the entry, descent and landing phase as there were no orbiters available to receive those particular signals and retransmit them to Earth. The first signal from Beagle 2 should have come from the ground, but there was only silence, and now we know why.
Although Beagle 2 did not operate on the surface as it was meant to, it is gratifying to know that it entered the atmosphere and safely reached the ground as planned, which alone is a success for the £48 million lander.
"The history books will have to be re-written," says Dr David Parker, head of the UK Space Agency, "to show that Beagle 2 did land on Mars on Christmas Day 2003 after all."
Beagle 2 depicted as it should have appeared after a successful landing on the surface of Mars.
Beagle 2
Mars

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Beagle-2, ESA's Mars Express Orbiter, Found 11 Years After Disappearance
| By By GREGORY KATZ
01/16/2015 5:43 am EST

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=iAKAJR4N6zQ

LONDON (AP) — The European Space Agency's Beagle-2 lander, which had been lost on Mars since 2003, has been found, the agency said Friday.
New photos taken by the high-resolution camera on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show the lander partially deployed on the surface of the Red Planet, it said.
Rudolf Schmidt, ESA's Mars Express project manager at the time, called the finding "excellent news." He said that not knowing what happened to Beagle-2 had "remained a nagging worry."
Beagle-2 has not been heard of since it separated from its mother ship, but ESA said the images prove the entry, descent and landing sequence did work and that it successfully landed on Mars on Christmas Day in 2003.
UK Space Agency chief executive David Parker said the discovery of the craft showed its complex landing procedures had worked.
"This finding makes the case that Beagle-2 was more of a success than we previously knew and undoubtedly an important step in Europe's continuing exploration of Mars," he said.
Parker told a London news conference that there are no indications the lander crashed.
"These images are consistent with the Beagle-2 having successfully landed on Mars but then only partially deploying itself," he said.
The British-built Beagle-2 was launched on ESA's Mars Express orbiter and was supposed to look for signs of alien life.
It was released from its mother ship on Dec. 19, 2003, and was supposed to land six days later, but no communications with the lander were ever established.
Professor Mark Sims of the University of Leicester, who worked on the project, said the new information shows the team came extremely close to its goal of getting data from Mars, with the deployment failing only in its final stage.
"To be frank, I had all but given up hope of ever knowing what happened to Beagle-2," he said.
After the project failed, two U.S. spacecraft landed on Mars and sent back many pictures and extensive scientific data.
____
David Rising in Berlin contributed.

Copyright © 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Beagle 2: Found on Mars After An 11 Year Hunt
by David Dickinson on January 16, 2015
The Beagle-2 lander on the plains of Isidis Planitia. Credit & Copyright: HiRISE/NASA/Leicester.
The final chapter in the saga of a wayward Mars lander was finally revealed today, as an international team released images showing the Beagle-2 lander's final resting place on Mars.
Flashback to Christmas Day, 2003. While most folks gathered 'round the tree and opened presents, the UK and European Space Agency awaited a gift from space. The Beagle-2 Mars lander had been released from the European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter six days prior, and was coasting towards a perilous landing in Isidis Planitia and was set to phone home.
All was going according to plan, and then… silence.
It's the worst part of any mission, waiting for a lander to call back and say that it's safe and sound on the surface of another world. As the hours turned into days, anxious engineers used NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft and the Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank to listen for the signal.
Beagle-2 was declared lost a few weeks later on February 6^th, 2004.
But now, there's a final twist to the tale to tell.
Beagle 2, partially deployed on the Martian surface. Credit and Copyright: HiRISE/NASA/Leicester.
The UK Space Agency, working with ESA and NASA announced today that debris from the landing site had been identified and that indicates — contrary to suspicions — that Beagle-2 did indeed make it to the surface of the Red Planet intact. New images from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter released today suggest that not only did Beagle-2 land, but that its airbags did indeed deploy properly and that the dish-shaped 1-meter in diameter spacecraft partially unfolded pocket-watch style after it had bounced to a stop.
"We are very happy to learn that Beagle 2 touched down on Mars," said ESA's Director of Science and Robotic Exploration in a recent press release. "The dedication of the various teams in studying high-resolution images in order to find the lander is inspiring."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=iAKAJR4N6zQ
So, what went wrong with Beagle-2?
At this point, no further speculation as to what caused the lander to fall silent has been forthcoming, but today's revelation is sure to rewrite the final saga of Beagle-2.
"Not knowing what happened to Beagle-2 remained a nagging worry," said ESA's Mars Express project manager Rudolf Schmidt. "Understanding now that Beagle-2 made it all the way down to the surface is excellent news."
Speculation swirled across the internet earlier this week as the UK Space Agency and ESA suggested that new information as to the fate of Beagle-2 was forthcoming, over 11 years after the incident. Back in 2004, it was suggested that Beagle-2 had encountered higher levels of dust in the Martian atmosphere than expected, and that this in turn resulted in a failure of the spacecraft's parachutes. Presumably, the lander then failed to slow down sufficiently and crashed on the surface of Mars, the latest victim of the Great Galactic Ghoul who seems to love dining on human-built spacecraft bound for the Red Planet.
An artist's conception of Beagle-2 fully deployed on Mars. Credit: ESA.
The loss of Beagle-2 wasn't only a blow to the UK and ESA, but to its principal investigator Colin Pillinger as well. Pillinger was involved in the search for Beagle-2 in later years, and also played a part in the Rosetta mission to Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko as well. Unfortunately, Pillinger passed away in May of last year from a brain hemorrhage. A portion of the western rim of Endeavour Crater currently being explored by Opportunity was named Pillinger Point in his honor.
Today's announcement has triggered a wave of congratulations that the 11 mystery has been solved. There have even been calls on Twitter and social media to rename the Beagle-2 site Pillinger Station.
"The history of of space exploration is marked by both success and failure," Said Dr. David Parker, the Chief Executive of the UK Space Agency in a recent press release. "This finding makes the case that Beagle-2 was more of a success than we previously knew and undoubtedly an important step in Europe's continuing exploration of Mars."
Evidence of the successful landing of Beagle-2. Click here for the animated .gif version. Credit: University of Leicester/Beagle 2/NASA/University of Arizona.
Beagle-2 is about 2 metres across unfurled, and came to rest within 5 kilometres of its target location.
There have been false announcements of the discovery of Beagle-2 before. Back in late 2005, a claim was made that the lander had been spotted by Mars Global Surveyor, though later searches came to naught.
"I can imagine the sense of closure that the Beagle-2 team must feel," Said JPL's MRO project scientist Richard Zurek in a recent press release. "MRO has helped find safe landing sites on Mars for the Curiosity and Phoenix missions and has searched for missing craft to learn what may have gone wrong. It's an extremely difficult task."
MRO entered orbit in March 2006 and carries a 0.5 metre in diameter HiRISE camera capable of resolving objects just 0.3 metres across on the surface of Mars. The European Space Agency's Mars Express orbiter that carried Beagle 2 is also still in operation, along with NASA's aging Mars Odyssey spacecraft. These were joined in orbit by MAVEN and India's Mars Orbiter just last year.
Beagle-2 encapsulated in the lab. All rights reserved, Beagle-2.
Of course, getting to Mars is tough, and landing is even harder. Mars has just enough atmosphere that you have to deal with it, but it's so tenuous – 0.6% the surface pressure of Earth's atmosphere at sea level – That it doesn't provide a whole lot of usable drag.
To date, only NASA had successfully landed on Mars, and done it seven times – only the Mars Polar Lander failed back in 1999. The Russians fared much worse, with their most successful lander being Mars 3, which sent back only one blurry image before falling silent.
ESA and the Russian Federal Space Agency hope to amend that with the launch of the ExoMars mission next year, slated to land on Mars in 2018.
I remember waiting with millions of other space fans for word back from Beagle 2 on Christmas Day 2003. Think back to what your internet connection was like over 11 years ago, in an era before smart phones, Twitter and Facebook. We'd just come off of the spectacular 2003 Mars opposition season, which provided the orbital geometry ideal for launching a mission to the Red Planet. This window only comes around once every 26 months.
Though Beagle 2 was a stationary lander akin to the Viking and Mars Phoenix missions, it had a robotic arm and a clever battery of experiments, including ones designed to search for life. The signal it was supposed to use to call home was designed by the UK pop rock band Blur, a jingle that never came.
Alas, we'll have to wait to see what the alien plains around Isidis Planitia actually look like, just 13 degrees north of the Martian equator. But hey, a lingering mystery of the modern age of planetary exploration was solved this week.
Still, we're now left with a new dilemma. Does this mean we'll have to write a sequel to our science fiction short story The Hunt for Beagle?
-Read free original science fiction from Dave Dickinson every Friday, including ongoing chapters from The Hunt for Beagle.