In
a press conference this morning the ESA (European space agency)
confirm that NASA found their Beagle 2 rover that has been lost for
over a decade. It was on Monday, Jan. 12, the HIRise camera on NASA's
MRO (Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter) spotted what they suspected was the
missing
rover. After studying the images over the course of the week it
was confirmed that is was indeed the Beagle 2 rover.
"The
history of space exploration is marked by both success and failure,"
UK Space Agency Chief David Parker said
in a statement.
"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."
The story
started on June 2, 2003 when the Beagle 2 rover was launched from
Balkonur Cosmodrome in Kazakstan. The rover rode on a Soyuz-FG rocket
as part of the ESA's Mars express mission to take soil sample and
collect data for signs of life. After a 6+ month long voyage the
rover was deployed into a Martian orbit on Dec. 19 and was never seen
or heard from again. It was never known if the rover completed the
the decent to the planet surface or lost in space.
"To
be frank, I had all but given up hope of ever knowing what happened
to Beagle 2," said former Beagle 2 mission manager Mark Sims, of
the University of Leicester, in the UK Space Agency statement. "The
images show that we came so close to achieving the goal of science on
Mars. The images vindicate the hard work put in by many people and
companies both here in the UK and around Europe and the world in
building Beagle 2."
Shortly after the
rover went missing the conspiracy theories started flying on what
could be the reason behind the disappearance. These theories ranged
from a cover-up
to hid data showing life and man-made structures, the United
State destroying it to alien
abduction. The truth turned far less dramatic though when the
NASA images showed that the rover did in fact make its Christmas land
but just failed to open up its solar panels and communication array.
"Beagle
2 wasn't a failure by any stretch of the imagination," Sims
said. "We trained a whole generation of engineers and scientists
in Mars exploration."
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