Beagle-2 Lander

Spacecraft nº:

ESA spacecraft nº: 52

Launch data: Designation  A05294 / 03022 Launch date  02 June 2003 - 17:45:26 UT Released on Dec 19, 2003 at 08:31 UT Launch site  Baikonur Launch vehicle  Soyuz-FG/Fregat(1e launch) Mission  Mars lander Operator   Heliocentric orbit Perihelion / Aphelion   Incl. to ecliptic   ° Period   min

Beagle 2 after separating

Spacecraft data: Prime contractor   Customer  ESA Platform  Mars Express Orbiter Mass at launch  69 kg Dry Mass  33.2 kg Basic shape  shallow bowl Dimension  dia: 0.65m, depth: 0.25m 0.75m long robot arm Solar array   DC power   Design lifetime

Beagle lander

Description:

• Beagle 2 is equipped with a robot sampling arm and a small "mole" (Planetary Undersurface Tool, or PLUTO) which can be deployed by the arm and is capable of moving across the surface at a rate of about 1 cm every 5 seconds using a compressed spring mechanism. This mechanism can also allow the mole to burrow into the ground and collect a subsurface sample in a cavity in its tip. The mole is attached to the lander by a power cable which can be used as a winch to bring the sample back to the lander. The lander will be equipped with instruments for gas chromatography and mass spectroscopy (the Gas Analysis Package, or GAP), a microscope, panoramic and wide-angle cameras, Mossbauer and X-ray flourescence spectrometers and environmental sensors.
• The robot arm is equipped with a grinder and corer, a device to collect a core sample from inside any rocks within reach of the robot arm. The Mossbauer and X-ray spectrometers and the microscope are also held in a package on the end of the arm called the position adjustable workbench, or PAW. The stereo camera system is also mounted on the arm. The lander has the shape of a shallow bowl with a diameter of 0.65 m and a depth of 0.25 m. The cover of the lander is hinged and folds open to reveal the interior of the craft which holds a UHF antenna, the 0.75 m long robot arm, and the scientific equipment. The main body also contains the battery, telecommunications, electronics, and central processor, and the heaters. The lid itself further unfolds to expose four disk-shaped solar arrays. The lander package has a mass of 69 kg at launch but the actual lander is only 33.2 kg at touchdown.
• The Beagle 2 is a British-led effort as part of the European Space Agency's Mars Express mission. It is named after the HMS Beagle, the ship which carried Charles Darwin on the voyage which led to his discovery of natural selection and evolution.

Mission details:

• First Mars mission to be flown by the European Space Agency. Payload comprises RSA's Mars Express orbiter and the British (Open University) Beagle-2 lander.
  
• Beagle-2 lander was ejected from the European Space Agency's Mars Express at 0831 UTC on Dec 19, 2003 on a trajectory that will impact Mars on Dec 25.
• Beagle-2 coasted for five days after release and entered the martian atmosphere at over 20,000 km/hr on the morning of 25 December.
  The Beagle-2 lander reached the surface of Mars on Dec 2, 2003 at 0252 UTC, but no signals have been received from it. The heatshield-encapsulated Beagle-2 entered the Martian atmosphere (at a fiducial height of 120 km) at 0247 UTC, at a speed of 5.5 km/s. Over the next two minutes it decelerated to a few hundred meters per second. If the descent went as planned, at 0250 UTC the heat shield was ejected together with the deployment of the pilot parachute, 7.1 km above the surface, and a minute later the main parachute was deployed. At 0251:43 the airbags were inflated at a height of 0.3 km and Beagle bounced onto the surface at 0252:00 UTC, at which point the parachute and backshell are jettisoned. If for some reason the parachute system failed to operate, Beagle-2 would have impacted the surface as early as 0251 UTC.
• Landing was expected to occur at about 02:54 UT on 25 December (9:54 p.m. EST 24 December). After landing the bags would deflate and the top of the lander would open. The top would unfold to expose the four solar array disks. Within the body of the lander a UHF antenna would have been deployed. A panoramic image of the landing area would be taken using the stereo camera and a pop-up mirror. A signal was scheduled to be sent after landing (and possibly an image) to Mars Odyssey at about 5:30 UT and another the next (local) morning to confirm that Beagle 2 survived the landing and the first night on Mars. No signal was received at this time nor at any of the subsequent opportunities. Nothing further is known about the lander. If the landing had been successful instructions would be sent to Beagle 2. The lander arm would be released and be used to maneuver the scientific package located on the end of the arm and to dig up samples to be deposited in the Gas Analysis Package for study. The "mole" would be deployed by the arm, crawling across the surface to a distance of about three meters from the lander and capable of burrowing under rocks to collect soil samples for analysis.
• Even if Beagle-2 is lost, it is still the first non-US, non-Soviet artifact to reach the surface of Mars.
• Beagle 2 was declared lost after no communications were received following the scheduled landing on Mars. Attempts at contact were made for over a month after the expected landing at 2:54 UT December 25, 2003. A board of inquiry was appointed to look into the reason for the failure and released its report on 24 August 2004. No concrete reason for the probe's failure was determined. Factors that were considered as plausible causes of the failure were unusually thin atmosphere over the landing site, electronic glitches, a gas bag puncture, damage to a heat shield, a broken communications antenna, and collision with an unforeseen object.
• The UK Mars probe Beagle 2 was never heard from after it entered the Martian atmosphere on 2003 Dec 25. It has now (Jan 2015) been discovered on the surface in Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter images at 90.4295E, 11.5265N, apparently intact and with at least one solar panel deployed.