Life on Mars? ‘Partially deployed’ Beagle-2 finally located on the red planet

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. Rudolf Schmidt, ESA’s Mars Express project manager at the time, called the finding “excellent news.”

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.

UK Space Agency chief executive David Parker

UK Space Agency chief executive David Parker has confirmed that photos taken by a NASA orbiter spacecraft show it successfully landed 12 years ago. He said: “We have good evidence of Beagle 2 resting on the surface of Mars. These images are consistent with the Beagle 2 having successfully landed on Mars but then only partially deploying itself.”

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