Beagle 2 Mars lander’s remains may have been spotted on red planet
Source: Guardian
Press conference on Friday will provide an update on the fate of the Mars spacecraft that disappeared on Christmas day in 2003
A British Mars lander that was lost on its way to the red planet more than a decade ago may have been spotted by an orbiting spacecraft.
The Beagle 2 lander was supposed to touch down on Christmas day in 2003, but after it was released from its mothership, Mars Express, the dustbin-lid-sized craft was never heard from again.
But Beagle 2’s final resting place may finally have been discovered. Scientists operating the HiRise camera on Nasa’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) will take part in a press conference this Friday to announce “an update” on the ill-fated mission.
The HiRise camera is the only camera in Mars orbit that can image the surface in high enough detail to spot missing spacecraft. The HiRise team has already found the twin Viking landers which touched down on Mars in the 1970s and photographed Nasa’s Phoenix, Curiosity and Opportunity rovers. They have been actively hunting for Beagle 2 for several years.
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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/jan/12/beagle-2-mars-lander-remains-red-planet
Via http://nasawatch.com/archives/2015/01/did-mro-find-be.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
Long-lost Beagle 2 is spotted on Mars not far from its target
Hannah Devlin Science Editor
Published at 12:01AM, January 13 2015
It may have been named after the ship on which Charles Darwin sailed, but Britain’s ill-fated Mars mission became the Flying Dutchman of space exploration when it vanished without trace on Christmas Day in 2003.
Now, after more than a decade of radio silence, the remains of Beagle 2 appear to have been located tantalisingly close to the mission’s intended landing site.
The British Space Agency refused to confirm the remarkable find yesterday, saying it would be giving an “update” on the mission Friday.
However, a senior space scientist who has seen details of the findings told The Times that images ...
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'Beagle 2' Mars Lander Update: UK Space Agency Calls Briefing For Craft That Failed... In 2003
Huffington Post UK | By Michael Rundle
Posted: 12/01/2015 09:51 GMT Updated: 12/01/2015 10:59 GMT
The UK Space Agency has announced a media briefing for an "update" on Beagle 2 - the British space craft which tried and failed to make a soft landing on Mars in 2003.
Beagle 2 was part of the European Space Agency's Mars Express mission, and was intended to report back from the surface of the Red Planet with a variety of instruments designed to help search for life.
The robot garnered huge attention in the British media at the time - partly due to the brilliance and energy of Prof. Colin Pillinger, the leader of the Beagle 2 mission and its most iconic supporter, who died in 2014.
Above: Pillinger with a model of Beagle 2
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never heard that before...and I'm the resident science geek where I work.
Of course I'll drop that little shiny jewel of info and make it sound like I knew all along.
There is an IDIOT at my job who thinks we never landed on the moon
"because the rocks in the pictures were numbered"
"what about the pepsi can?"
All sorts of idocrasy...He's a Ted Cruz fan.....kinda says it all doesn't it?
bang....bang.....boom!
- As usual, NASA's only telling part of the truth.....
Thanks for the morning laugh!! Hilarious!! 
that does it. 
out THERE!
