Beagle 2, the British lander missing since it attempted to land on Mars on Christmas Day, 2003, may have been found on the red planet’s surface, reports claim.
Speculation is rife ahead of a press conference this Friday held by the UK Space Agency to announce an “update” on the mission. It is believed the craft may have been spotted by a camera on NASA’s Reconnaissance Orbiter.
Beagle 2 was part of a European Space Agency (ESA) mission to the neighbouring planet, and named after HMS Beagle, the ship which carried Charles Darwin on his mission to the Galapagos. The lander was intended to look for signs of life on the planet, as well as survey Martian geology, mineralogy and geochemistry.
The project was led by Cambridge scientist Colin Pillinger, whose spirited approach brought the mission a lot of publicity and support. Dr Pillinger, who was a key figure in the success of the Rosetta mission last year, passed away last May at the age of 70.
Colin Pillinger ahead of Beagle 2's disappearance [ESA]
Beagle 2 disappeared during its descent phase, after successfully detaching from ESA’s Mars Express Orbiter. The mission was officially declared lost on February 6th, 2004, after the confirmation message to be relayed after landing was never received.
While the subject of the press-conference remains unknown, The Guardian reports that it is highly likely that NASA’s craft has spotted Beagle 2; the HiRise camera (the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) has previously captured images of the two Martian Viking landers that made it to the red planet in the 1970s, as well as NASA’s Phoenix, Curiosity and Opportunity rovers.
A senior space scientist in The Times who has reportedly seen the HiRise images has also said the image is "about the right shape and in about the right place," while adding that "It tells us how close it got to the right landing spot and that it was in one piece."
