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Gone without a trace. The British-built Beagle 2 lander remains lost in action after attempting a landing on Mars late last year. The probe was ejected from the European Space Agencys Mars Express Orbiter now circling the red planet.
A Mars Global Surveyor (MGS) Mars Orbiter Camera (MOC) high-resolution view of the Beagle 2 landing area was released January 30. Malin Space Science Systems of San Diego, operator of the MOC, issued the search imagery.
Within a close up image of Isidis Planitia -- the December 25 landing zone of the Beagle 2 -- there is no obvious sign of Beagle 2 -- but the photo only covers a fraction of the area in which the probe might have landed.
Making the search for Beagle 2 more difficult is that the atmosphere of Mars became dusty at the end of 2003. Increased dust in the martian atmosphere can degrade the high-resolution imagery taken by the MOC.
The search for Beagle 2 has involved using both MOC imagery and data from another NASA orbiter, the Mars Odyssey.
Search request
The Beagle 2 team requested the help of Malin Space Science Systems, hoping that such a search might spot the probes parachute, a heat-protecting aeroshell discarded above the touchdown zone, or even the lander itself.
"There are no obvious indications for lander elements within the high resolution MOC image," notes a report on the Beagle 2 web site:
www.beagle2.com/."Of course, there is only a small chance that Beagle 2 actually landed in this part of the ellipse," the Beagle 2 team reported. Highly reflective items such as the Beagle 2 parachute or the lander itself should be visible by the MOC camera.
The Beagle 2 team had their hopes raised given the successful use of the MOC camera to spot NASAs Spirit lander, its parachute, and aeroshell within Gusev Crater.
The hardware stood out, in part, by the fact that a reddish veneer of dust particles has not yet made it difficult to discern fresh spacecraft elements on old, dusty martian terrain.
Causes for Beagles mishap
Using orbital imagery to figure out what went wrong with Beagle 2 remains a high priority. Similar in fate to NASAs Mars Polar Lander in 1999, the British lander did not relay signals to its operators about whether specific milestones during its entry, descent and landing were achieved.
It is conceivable that the Beagle 2 failed during its high-temperature entry over Mars. MOC observations could, at a minimum, verify whether Beagle 2s parachute had deployed. Given that find, a next stage would be to locate Beagle 2s three airbags and possibly the lander itself.
"Depending on what we may eventually see from these observations, it may be possible to dramatically narrow the search for causes of Beagle's mishap," the Beagle 2 team reported.
Mars Rovers: Complete Coverage
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