* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

RE: Beagle 2 Mars probe

Blobrana · L

As Schiaparelli prepares to land on Mars, hear about the legacy of Beagle 2

With the much-anticipated landing of the Schiaparelli spacecraft on Mars tomorrow [19 October], the University of Bristol has announced a special event being held in memory of Colin Pillinger - the Bristol-born scientist best known for leading the Beagle 2 mission to Mars.
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Blobrana · L

Lost Beagle2 probe found 'intact' on Mars

The missing Mars robot Beagle2 has been found on the surface of the Red Planet, apparently intact.
High-resolution images taken from orbit have identified its landing location, and it looks to be in one piece.
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Blobrana · L

BEAGLE 2 HAS LANDED

Spoiler

Blobrana · L

Blur digitizing 'Beagle 2' call sign 2002

Spoiler

Blur: Far Out (final full version)

Spoiler

Blobrana · L

The unsuccessful Beagle 2 spacecraft was scheduled to enter the Martian atmosphere, at over 20,000 km/h, on the morning of the 25th of December, 2003

Blobrana · L

Search for Beagle 2 Lander

The Isidis basin is where the British Beagle 2 spacecraft was supposed to land around Christmas time of 2003.

All contact was lost after its separation from the Mars Express spacecraft six days before atmospheric entry. The lack of telemetry on its way to the surface means there is little information about where the spacecraft may have landed on the surface--we can only search in the region where it was expected to land if the entry, descent, and landing (EDL) sequence had been nominal. EDL was probably not nominal, but perhaps the spacecraft did land correctly and failure occurred for some other reason.
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Blobrana · L

Beagle 2 was an unsuccessful British landing spacecraft that formed part of the European Space Agency's 2003 Mars Express mission. It is not known for certain whether the lander reached the Martian surface; all contact with it was lost upon its separation from the Mars Express six days before its scheduled entry into the atmosphere.
After deceleration in the Martian atmosphere, parachutes were to be deployed and about 1 km above the surface large airbags were to inflate around the lander and protect it when it hit the surface. Landing was expected to occur at about 02:45 UT on 25 December, 2003.

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Blobrana · L

The scientist behind the ill-fated Beagle-2 mission to Mars has written an account of the UK-led venture.
Professor Colin Pillinger's book - My Life on Mars (The Beagle-2 Diaries) - describes how the probe was built and ultimately lost as it entered the Martian atmosphere on Christmas Day in 2003.
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Blobrana · L

Beagle 2 didn't spin to its doom
What happened to the UK's Beagle 2 Mars probe on Christmas Day 2003 is once more unclear.
In December 2008, engineers led by Madhat Abdel-Jawad at the University of Queensland thought they had cracked it when their simulations showed Beagle 2's gyroscopic spin was too fast for it to remain stable - so it would have tumbled and burned up in the Martian atmosphere.
The Beagle 2 team is far from convinced. Arthur Smith of Fluid Gravity Engineering in Emsworth, Hampshire, UK, says the Australian team failed to simulate atmospheric entry in a gravity field, or allow for Beagle 2's offset centre of gravity, meaning the simulations were flawed. With the parameters set correctly, Smith's simulations show that Beagle 2 did not tumble.

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